I spent all of last Sunday helping my friend Andrew sort through his entire body of artwork in an attempt to narrow the selection down to five pieces featuring hearts he intended to exhibit in an upcoming show. I'd select a few, he'd veto them, he'd show me some, I'd criticize them. After three hours of this we had a stack of twenty-seven maybes, one yes and thirty-two no's. Needing a fresh eye and a bottle of Chianti, we invited Sarah over to join the jumbled mess. Her input allotted another yes and a nice wine buzz.
As night rolled in I headed home with a tension headache that would not go away. To ease my mind I opted to watch something mindless like the news. This being an election year, there was plenty of time given to coverage of campaigners speaking on behalf of this or that and trying to persuade the audience to feel the same way they do. "Trust in us," they'd say, "we have your values at heart." Interesting," I thought. How does what's-his-name from what's-that-state know what my values are? I had spent all day with a man I've known for years and yet we were unable to come up with a solution for a simple problem, and now I'm supposed to trust the opinion of a man who had paid more money for a thirty second commercial than I made all of last year? It makes me wonder -- how much is an opinion worth? Does it matter who it's from? Should I trust a politician I've never met but who has spent years learning the ways of the law? Should Andrew trust my opinion just because I'm a friend even though I know nothing about art? When it comes to making decisions, do we need a consensus or do we trust the art of listening to our hearts?
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