Allison's Extraordinary Ordinary

This is a photo of my friend Allison's bro-in-law standing in
front of a ginormous display of beer at whole foods.

"To put the photo in context, i took it last christmastime, in
Oregon, which you might remember was completely shut down by a series
of ice and snowstorms. Well we managed to make it out to whole foods
(seriously, a journey of epic proportions, risking life and limb for a
clamshell of arugula!)

Before arriving, I had expected empty shelves, and a very limited
selection... After all it was pretty much the storm of the century,
and the roads had been closed for days. We got there and I was
astonished how pretty much every item was fully stocked, vegetables
were as fresh as ever-- not the soviet-era breadlines I expected!
Anyway, upon heading to the beer section, I was floored by the
selection... I mean, that is an overwhelming variety of beers, no?
Even if it wasn't a terrible snowstorm!
What I find extraordinary about this photo is how we have become so
accustomed to having choices. For dinner on a given night, its
ordinary for us to choose from the cuisines of the world... Thai,
italian, ethiopian, mexican, etc. In all things, our generation
demands choices! These choices would have been unheard of one or two
generations ago. We are lucky to be able to choose from tsingtao
beer, karmellet, or just miller lite."