"The Hurt Locker": Too Many Choices

We watched “The Hurt Locker” last week and with all the harrowing suspense scenes, the scene that resonated most for me was the “cereal aisle” scene towards the end of the movie. It's a scene that a traveler just back from a long trip can relate to. Sergeant First Class William James is back from his Iraq bomb squad tour of duty and he’s trying to cope with normality back home. His wife Connie asks him “Do you wanna get some cereal and I’ll meet you at the checkout stand?” Her patient smile tells us that William’s re-entry has been just as much of a challenge for her as it has been for him. William says “Okay, cereal,” and walks a few paces and says “Where…?” then keeps walking. We cut to William standing in the cereal aisle looking at the myriad of choices in front of him. I paused the frame and counted seven different types of Cheerios/Toasted Oats varieties alone.

(For the record: Multi-Grain Cheerios, Honey-Nut Cheerios, Toasted O’s, Whole Grain Cheerios, Cheerios, Honey Nut Toasted O’s and Apple Cinnamon Cheerios)

I loved the image of a macho bomb squad dude who thrives on pressure and adrenaline, who always knows what to do, yet is completely befuddled by the most mundane scenario imaginable. My wife and I had a similar feeling when we were in Los Angeles over the New Year’s holiday after having been in South America for 6 months. While I’m in no way comparing traveling in South America to being on a tour of duty in Iraq, there are similarities. Being in a completely foreign environment for an extended time provides you with “instant perspective” upon your return, a perspective that is quickly dulled the longer you are there. I’m sure that if William had stayed in suburbia long enough, he’d start seeing the plethora of options in the cereal aisle as normal.

While traveling through South America, one is not confronted with an array of choices that we have in the United States. In restaurants, there is the menú, the set meal of the day that everyone orders and usually all they have to drink is Coke or Sprite. In the supermarkets there is some variety in the produce, grain and meat sections, but there are usually one or two brands of tea, jam, beer, yogurt, milk, bread and yes, breakfast cereal.

With our week in Los Angeles, we had a long shopping list of things to buy: swim suits, hiking sandals, a new laptop-friendly backpack, safari shirts, mosquito repellent, quality sunscreen and many other things that were hard to find in South America. After a few days of shopping we were completely bewildered: we had too many options. There were always dozens of choices and the time needed to weigh the pros and cons of those options was considerable. I think it was shopping for food in a Marina Del Rey supermarket when we realized that we’d had enough. A dozen types of bagged salad, hundreds of wine brands, two dozen brands of artisan breads…ugh. This is the experience that flashes in my mind when I watch William in “The Hurt Locker.”

In the end, William prefers the shrapnel waiting inside a bomb to the processed corn shrapnel inside the cereal boxes; he signs up for another tour of duty. Even though we only had a week in Los Angeles, we were ready to continue our tour of duty.