Mar 7th, 2026 Saturday Cloudy
From his recent trip to the Middle East, my husband brought home a box of chocolates.
I was not impressed at first – after all, of all the interesting souvenirs more representative of the culture, history, and produce of the region, why chocolate?
Nevertheless, I would not object to tasting them. When asked what type of chocolates these are, my husband shrugged, “your guess is as good as mine”.
I perused the label, hoping to find the ingredients, only to notice a paragraph of non-specific description that there may be many varieties inside the box, featuring a long list of (more than twenty) potential fillings, from nuts to fruits to biscuit crème (???). Unwilling to admit defeat, I opened the lid – chocolates of golf-ball sizes, wrapped in a few different styles, pile up unorganized.
Judging from the packaging, we figured there might be three to five styles, distinguished by the colors of the wrapping paper. Once we tried and identified each one, we would know what to expect from similar ones.
That turned out to be the wrong assumption. Inside the nearly identical dark brown wraps, so far I have found two pistachio kinds (one is creamier and sweeter than the other), one hazelnut kind, and one shortbread cookie kind. Speculating what the next bite seems more enjoyable than the chocolates themselves.
That is, if you are willing to let go of the sense of control, and be content with surprises, pleasant or not.
In recent years, the concept of a blind box has quickly caught on popularity. Beginner-level blind boxes let you see all the possible designs, like a Pusheen keychain blind box. You are certain that you will get a pusheen (not a snoopy), with (usually) equal likelihood of its being any of the models shown. Some manufacturers push it one step further, and print out the detailed probabilities in the case of uneven distribution. Intermediate-level ones give you a range (e.g. a local breakfast restaurant had a blind special that I was fond of, because it saved me trouble of choosing for myself, and I am generally happy with just about any breakfast dishes 😛 ). Advanced-level blind boxes can truly be anything. For example, some vending machines in Japan will let you buy one of these for a fixed price, with no knowledge of what you are getting (which may very well be…worthless).
I used to question the appeal of these. Isn’t it the same as lottery tickets? People all wish to be rewarded a prize higher in value than what they paid for. While in theory this could occur, the possibility is so low that you might as well count it as impossible.
However, now I come to realize that another charm of a blind box is the unpredictable component, much like rolling a die. Because the result is or at least feels random, one can hold one’s breath as the truth is revealed. Our curiosity is excited, then satisfied.
Children naturally do this all day long as they explore the world. Everything is like a game, with wins and losses equally amusing.
Adults cannot afford to game with life anymore. Still, it is perfectly fine to take some calculated risks, and allow ourselves to experience that simple fun again.