A sharp wind whipped into my bedroom through the open window, rousing me from a sound sleep. A few minutes later, I heard sirens in the distance. Then, the fan fell silent. “There goes the power,” I thought groggily before falling back to sleep. “Must be a big storm.”
By the next morning, the storm had blown through eastern Massachusetts and was on its way up the coast to Maine. Surveying the damage, I noticed a big tree in our backyard had fallen into the neighbor’s yard, crushing the fence between us. Then, my phone started jangling nervously with incoming texts. “Terrible news!” said the message from our staffers in Natick. “A tree branch fell, damaging the dumpster behind the store.”
For all the hype from the weather service about a horrendous “bomb cyclone” tearing up New England, the actual damage for us was pretty minor. We had no fires, no flooding and no damage that would force us to close our three stores. We swept up the debris in the parking lot in Natick, then opened the store as usual.
What is it with the heightened drama these days? Every storm seems to be historic or record-shattering in some way. Every dispute seems overblown. Yet, life goes on much as it has over the years. Let’s be pragmatic: life brings us challenges, large and small. Can we all agree not to over-react?
Sometimes, during a delivery, a piece of furniture slides when the truck hits a bump in the road. Minor damage, minor problem. Every now and then, a clumsy customer knocks over a lamp in the showroom. Again, minor problem. There are customers who freak out when the delivery truck is a few minutes late because of traffic. I don’t see that as an impeachable offense.
Most of the problems we encounter in the course of the day are easily solved. Let’s try to keep things in perspective, folks. The bomb cyclone was nothing more than a frisky fall storm; the fallen tree branch didn’t endanger any lives in Natick. We at FCG are here to enhance our customers’ homes and lifestyles. Take it easy out there.
