Work Out - Decisions, decisions...

By Nancy Leasman of Long Prairie

I judged the open class art and photography at a county fair this summer. I have to say, making roughly 400 decisions in three hours was exhausting!

Decisions are not made easily. They require careful analysis and consideration. So much so, that some people let others make decisions for them, as if that’s a viable and preferred option. I’m not saying that it’s just letting someone else in the family or friend group make the decision. According to a recent radio broadcast, people will pay perfect strangers to make big-life decisions: What should they dispose of or retain of life’s collections? Should they quit their job, sell their house and move across the country, have more children? Shucks, when you think about it, people will ask palm readers and Ouija boards the same life altering questions.

Doctors recommend puzzle solving as brain exercise to stave off dementia. What puzzle solving boils down to is gathering information, whether already in the memory bank or through research, and making decisions. Of course, puzzles have right or wrong answers. Life isn’t that simple. There may be theoretically right or wrong decisions, but each one leads to its own result. People say everything happens for a reason. Or maybe everything happens because of a cause, a decision made.

A friend who is in the early stages of dementia was asked by her doctor what she did for brain stimulation. She replied that she sewed. He didn’t think that was a valid stimulus. She may not have told him, but she told me, that making things without a pattern, which she does, is definitely brain stimulating in the decisions that are made to reach a final product.

Creative people, artists, who make things that have never before been seen, don’t know when they start exactly what the result will look like. What sets them apart from those who follow patterns to recreate as exact a replica as they are able, is that they persevere through the difficult decisions to reach a final product which is pleasing to them, and maybe others.

Since the end of April, I’ve put in 321 hours (and counting) embroidering original patterns on fabric pieces that will become my youngest daughter’s wedding dress. Each stitch has been a color choice; a stitch density, type, length and direction; consideration of how it will fit into the whole design. I still don’t know exactly what that final product will look like. But there’s a vision, a result from the decisions made. Maybe the project will extend my brain function for a few extra years.