SHOPPING INDECISION

While it’s easy to track down the origin of prevarication itself (for those who are interested it comes from the Latin praevaricatus, to walk a crooked line) it’s a bit more difficult to establish its cause on a more personal basis.  Such were my thoughts as I dithered over the potential purchase of a pair of boots.  Civilizations had been conquered, cities destroyed, and wars started, with less equivocation that I was generating.



Like a tennis game being participated in by a lone player, my thoughts were running back and forth; the result of a lifetime of indecision and the “not quite bounding back as quickly as I’d like” economy.  For every pro there was a con, for every rush towards the “add to basket” button there was the accompanying rush away from the computer, and so it continued.



Even from the beginning there were only two potential outcomes; the frenetic to-ing and fro-ing would either cause me to tire of my potential purchase or break down my resistance.  In this instance, the yearning was too strong and resistance was futile.  Unfortunately, while I’d been writhing in agonies of indecision others had not and the boots were sold out.  It’s irritating enough to have to walk a crooked line - to not be able to do so in the shoes of your choice is maddening.