I have been doing quite a bit with 'menus' this week. Reviewing food menus for the NLP Awards and creating the menus for the new website for starters.
In my mind, menus imply choice and as we know, choice is better than no choice...perhaps not always, but most of the time!
Personally, I love being presented with a menu of choices, because choice also creates an opportunity for pause and reflection, whilst weighing up those choices.
I spent all day yesterday creating website menus because as I built them up, I realised I had an opportunity to add in all those options that we haven't been able to make easily accessible in the past. At times, I felt as though I was filling the shelves in the candy store with jars of colourful, shiny sweets...all tempting in their own way and all on display, ready to be chosen by someone.
And that is the point, isn't it...to know we have a choice means being able to see the options. If all the sweet jars are hidden in the storage area at the back of the shop, how do we know what the choices are? Do we even know we have a choice or do we go into the shop and ask for sherbet lemons every time, because that is the one we know about!
What about when we think we don't have any choice at all? Do we ever ask the shopkeeper if there are other options, maybe hidden out the back. Or do we ever ask ourselves if there are other choices?
Even in a 'black and white situation', when choices are limited, there is still the choice...black or white, on or off, yes or no. And sometimes, when I look hard and find the choices, it helps me to feel I do have some modicum of control over the situation. Even if the choice is merely how I choose to react to the situation...surely that is the greatest choice of all.