Ggids

Imagine being alone and feeling isolated? Would a kind message make you feel better? It usually does and that is why Wildly Kind is beginning to place booths at festivals and fairs and other such gatherings. Anyone can go into the booth leave a kind message for someone who will need it.  Kayla Lamoureux the founder of Wildly Kind started it as a sort of free mental health resource. She began it in 2022 during the pandemic, and attracted a group of ambassadors who engage in doing kind things, for example give flowers to a stranger. The booths which first appeared in Portland where Lamoureux lives are an expansion of the organization’s work. With the first booths people could leave notes or even videos. They are now equipped with a land line where people can record a message to a stranger who may be struggling. They have appeared in several cities in other states and more are planned.

 I’d suggest you’d cheer the idea but I suspect that’s redundant, you already do. What I hope you will add to your cheering is how many people care about each other, strangers included, how many people want to help and how much good that represents.

For many of us the past year wasn’t easy and the status quo may persist in the coming one. Despite it, however, I do believe we can thrive. There’s so much good out there, good that for whatever reasons we just overlook. It could just be a child’s smile, someone letting us go ahead in a line, a warm hello from a friend or stranger. It can be the good in our friends, the inspiration of those who overcome odds and challenges, those who make discoveries for the good of all. It can be so many other things. May I suggest noticing  it? Perhaps at times focusing upon it? I can assure you it makes a huge difference.

As long as there’s good somewhere down the line, we can triumph!  And I know you won’t be surprised when  I also suggest that in the new year we  Keep Good Alive!

Happy Holidays!

Happy New Year!

New York Fashion Week has banned furs!  Perhaps it’s overdue, people are increasingly averse to buying furs or even approve of anyone doing so. That, we must admit, is a victory for the animals as well as for the animal activists who worked to achieve this.

In 2014 over 140 million animals such as minks, foxes or racoons were farmed and killed for their fur. In 2023, according to Humane World for Animals’ analysis, the number had dropped to 20 million. The figure does not include rabbits or animals caught in traps, but it still reveals a dramatic decline. One of the issues involved in this success is lessening the cruelty involved in killing the animals. Minks were gassed but foxes and racoons underwent anal electrocution. I admit to not fully understanding what it entails, but enough to be horrified. The way animals were kept on farms, they showed deep distress and the animal equivalent of traumas.

The turning point in fur ban came in 2017 when Gucci first went fur free. That was followed by Burberry, Prada, Chanel and Versace.   Furs are a luxury and using animals for something that is not necessary adds strength to banning fur. It’s been a long road and it is not over given that luxury houses like Hermes and LVMH for example still use fur. 

For fashion houses as well as for all of us banning furs is a reminder that it’s not enough not to be cruel to each other, we must include animals.