This holiday season my mind muses on season-appropriate themes of gratitude and turkeys.
With regard to gratitude, it is generally accepted that grateful people have less stress, which scientists say translates into better health and longer lives.
I'm pretty sure that turkeys benefit from lower stress as well. And, in a perfect world, all living beings would have as comfortable a life as is possible. The bad news for domesticated turkeys is about 65 million of them are stuffed, roasted or deep fried each holiday season, so it's hard to see how much these birds have to be thankful for, or how less stress might extend their lives.
On a positive note, 2017 has been a pretty good year for the furniture industry. Economic growth and rising markets haven't hurt. There have been challenges as well, natural and man-made disasters. Good news has been balanced by uncertainty and cringingly bad behavior by, you guessed it, turkeys! I'm not referencing the turkeys Benjamin Franklin called “birds of courage”. It's the ones we hear about in the media who have acted like full or part-time losers, the turkeys who in my imagination might be downgraded to turkey mites in their next incarnation.
Those of us in the home furnishings industry can be grateful that we come in contact with fewer of the "loser variety" turkeys than if we were in politics or the media. And, we can also be happy that those furniture folks who do step over the line, rarely make it to late night television!
There are so many examples of furniture industry people and companies who do good for their communities and the world. It's both an inspiration and a reminder to me to act with an extra dose of caring in 2018, just because the world needs it.
Best wishes for a happy holiday season!
Russell Bienenstock
Editorial Director/CEO
Russell Bienenstock is Editor-in-Chief of Furniture World Magazine, founded 1870. Comments can be directed to him at editor@furninfo.com.