Rock, paper scissors; Going once? twice?

By Amy Meade

Happy News Citizen Journalist

According to a New York Times story, when a Japanese art collector sought to choose between Sotheby's and Christie's auction houses to handle a sale (estimated at approximately $20 million) of works by Picasso, Cezanne and Van Gogh, he quixotically asked the two houses to play rock-paper-scissors for the privilege. Sotheby's lost out on the eventual $2.3 million commission by choosing paper as opposed to Christie's choice of scissors.

The article goes on to say that rock-paper-scissors is not an unusual decision-making method for Japanese executives, which makes one ask the question: if sushi, Tamagotchi, Pokemon and bubble tea can thrive on North America's shores, will the use of playground games to settle disputes become the 'next big thing'?

Can you imagine turning on the evening news to hear Peter Jennings say, "It's all out 'War' on Capitol Hill tonight as Congress uses the children's card game to decide whether or not they will approve President Bush's candidate for Supreme Court Justice, John Roberts Jr." Better yet, how about a House of Representatives softball game on the National Mall to decide whether or not to ratify the new tax plan?

I can picture Dennis Hastert in his baseball uniform (complete with elephant logo) calling the White House from his cell phone, "Yes, this is the Speaker of the House. Mr. President, can you ask Condoleezza Rice to come down to the National Mall? We're short a player. Thank you."

As a member of the Catholic faith, I'm glad the Vatican was unanimous in their decision to elevate Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the papacy. More than one frontrunner may have resulted in a prolonged game of tidily-winks or musical chairs to select our next religious leader. What more, I'm relieved His Holiness didn't have to flip a coin or throw a bunch of darts to decide upon the name, Benedict XVI.

But silliness aside, this story does have a moral to it. When asked about his auction house's winning decision, Nicolas Maclean, the International Director of Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art Department, admitted that he had gone to his 11 year-old twin daughters, Flora and Alice, for advice, knowing that they play the game often.

"Everybody knows you always start with scissors," Alice said. "Rock is way too obvious, and scissors beats paper." Flora added that for beginners, "scissors was definitely the safest." The reasoning? If the other side also picked scissors, another round would be required, in which you would again choose scissors because, as Alice explained, "Everybody expects you to choose rock."

The lesson? No matter how busy or stressed we are, it's important that we take the time to listen to, as well as talk to, our children. Sometimes, we can learn just as much from them as they can from us.

This story was produced by a Happynews Citizen Journalist.

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