Indecision

Life assails us with a myriad of dichotomies. It's all too easy in theory to pick one side or another; after all, it's a fine line to cross when opposing circumstances, objects, or whatever it may be, are placed tangentially in perfect alignment. In truth, we often hover precariously over that line pondering indecisively as to which way to sway when faced with a boolean decision. To make things worse, we are so familiar; so conditioned; to the notion of a split choice that at times we assume, as if a dichotomising automaton, that there is a split choice to be made, when in fact, those two supposedly distinct elements, can be desegregated into gradients that eventually dissolve into one another, like a spectrum of light. Put simply, it's not always a simple case of yes or no; sometimes, there's a maybe. Sometimes there's a yes with a condition and so forth.

Indeed it is frustrating when one observes a person P (for convenience's sake) for instance, falling victim to their oversimplifying tendencies, for to an observer, it seems obvious that there are many options available, yet P's eyes are devoted solely to one direction or another, like a crossroads in a trail. P is the type, you see, who will fail to notice the escalator to the left of a treacherous path lined with thorned bushes because P thinks in two dimensions and cannot fathom the notion of travelling in a direction that is not a relative left or right.

Inherent in dichotomising a situation, is excessive melodrama placed on a decision. This is certainly justifiable. One cannot help but apply intense gravity on a decision when one believes that there are only two outcomes available, of which both are inversely related. What is not justifiable, is dichotomising the situation in the first place, to spur such unnecessary melodrama - self-induced indecision. If we were not so basic in our thoughts, we need not subject ourselves to the torture of indecision, and since we do not operate in a bubble, and necessarily interact within complex social mechanisms, we should spare others from the torture of one's indecision too. Open up your mind. There are more courses of action than you think.