January 26 - Crayons and Choices

My box of Crayola Special Edition 100 Crayon, released in 2002 and now available from eBay for a modest $78.

By Magdalena I. García

Growing up in Cuba in the 1960s, school supplies were almost non-existent, with the exception of thin, low-quality notebooks, made from recycled paper, and pencils that we sharpened with used razor blades discarded by our parents. I don’t remember seeing or owning any crayons. Although I clearly recall the one time that the local bookstore and art supply center—La Concha de Venus (or Venus’ Shell)—got a special shipment of Swiss coloring pencils. I still dream of that metal box, with 24 brightly-colored pencils, neatly lined up side by side.

Needless to say, upon moving to Spain and eventually the US I was delighted to discover the abundance of school and art supplies, and especially the accessibility of coloring pencils and crayons. In fact, the annual back-to-school shopping list for elementary school children includes crayons, pencils and markers, and I love partaking of this ritual with my son every fall.

But shopping for crayons is no longer a simple matter. We’ve come a long way from the eight original colors introduced by Crayola in 1903 to the rainbow of today’s 120 different choices. And this obviously delights us and overwhelms us, as pointed out in “Crayons and Choice: A Headache in 120 Colors,” a story posted today on npr.org (National Public Radio) by Robert Krulwich. Check out the story and accompanying graphic at:www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2010/01/crayons_and_choice_a_headache.html.

Krulwich writes, “For most of us, it's hard to make choices. Because our brains get tired. And yet we have more and more and more choices all the time. Uninvited, unneeded, unwelcome. But what's to be done?”

Shopping for anything these days—from breakfast cereal to laundry detergent, from underwear to walking shoes, or from higher education to spiritual advice–is no longer a simple matter. But praise God for choices. Just don’t forget to put on your thinking cap—in the color of your choice, of course!