One By One

 It's the video store exercise.

You remember video stores, don't you? The places that had movies stored on chunks of plastic that you could borrow and return later, hopefully after watching the movie that you left with. 

If you went to the video store alone, your chances of success were quite high. Even if the first couple of tries at finding a title that you were interested in ended in one of two possible ways: Yes, we have that but it's checked out right now. Or, No I'm sorry we don't carry that, and I'm not sure it's available to rent. You could still come back with that third choice and be gratified with the experience of getting that third choice and leaving without too much additional drama. 

However, all you had to do was add one additional  person to this equation and suddenly you were subject to a degree of difficulty increased not just double but more like a power of ten. You might be saved by having had a discussion outside the store, or on the way, about what you hoped would be available to rent on this particular occasion. If you ended up striking out with that first trip to the counter, you would immediately be thrown into the winds of chaos as the two of you try to imagine what single movie would fill that void of entertainment in your collective life. Would you recommend it? Funny for him, but deep for her. I've seen it but I'm willing to see it again. That was a surrender move. Or you could pile it on the clerk across the counter: What's new that's good that's in that I haven't seen?

Go ahead and bring that third person along and hope that you brought snacks because you're not getting out of the video store anytime soon. You will be there for the long haul, unless by some providence you were clever enough to have had the discussion prior to getting into the car and you reserved your copy of Top Gun because you had all agreed that this was what you wanted to see. Truly. That poor, tired clerk would be pleased if you came to pick up your reservation on time, and not before the agreed upon six o'clock. Then all that good planning would be for naught as the desperate attempt to feed the needs of three disparate tastes would swirl once again out of control. 

Chances are you would all three have to surrender to seeing something that had been previously seen in the hopes of not falling asleep before the end credits. 

Anyone who came into the building with more than three people had a death wish. How could you possibly hope to find something "for the whole family to watch?" That stopped happening back in 1953 when Baby Ricky was born. Before cable television. Before cinema multiplexes. Before choices. So many choices. And there you were: stuck in a building full of other people trying to make choices that you already hoped they were not making. 

The next time you go to a video store, go alone.