I never realized how exacting decision-making could be until I met my husband...not that I had tough decisions to make about him or about us...just that I approach most decision-making happily...without a lot of concern about future regrets...I feel into the choices and intuitively select the one that is right for me...and move on to the next decision...
Then I met my husband...who takes a lot of time to decide...analyzes every conceivable outcome...frets over what seems to me the smallest details...all in an attempt to choose the perfect solution...the one that will make him happiest in the present...and avoid future regret...
We have been together for more than twenty years and I can now say this with some certainty: watching him make decisions is the most challenging part of our union...if I forget to appreciate our differences, his process can be as painful for me as it appears to be for him...
One case in point...for the past three weeks, he has been debating about purchasing an acoustic-electric guitar...this opportunity arose from an earlier decision to support a KickStarter project...it requires a new guitar, a six-string instead of the twelve-string he plays now....
Being the non-musician in the household, I was surprised by how many small decisions it takes to select a guitar...in my universe, you play them until you find the "one" that feels right...in his universe, there are many things to research and evaluate before you ever go to the music store...which type: acoustic or acoustic-electric...which body style: classic or dreadnought...which tonewood: indian or madagascar rosewood...I thought we would be home free once these decisions had been made...
Thankfully, he settled on a single brand fairly quickly...but within that brand, there were two different models that intrigued him...one was a discontinued item that has proven very difficult to locate...with the added challenge that, once found, it cannot be played without paying shipping at least one direction...and often there is a restocking fee...
The frontrunner, an acoustic-electric guitar...
Ho ordered one of these outdated models...it arrived last Friday...identified by the seller, a New York music store, as the one he was seeking...but when it arrived, it was the newer version...with richlite fretboard and bridge instead of ebony...a guitar that had not even made his shortlist...until it arrived, with the newer electronics he had forsaken during his early analysis...until he hooked it up to his amp and played it...until he couldn't compare it to its predecessor, the elusive discontinued model that was on the list...
Eventually, he found the latter at a local store...dinged but play worthy...so now he is considering among three guitars...and is playing them one after the other...over and over again...until he can decide which one has the sound he likes best...even though one of them has never been set up...and, according to the local repair guy for the manufacturer, can be made to sound any way my husband likes...
Who wants to wager that he'll end up choosing only one guitar? I'm not much of a betting person...and I'm thinking this is the longshot...