There is an almost endless array of ways that one can divide people into two different groups.  I would like to offer yet another possibility:  there are two kinds of people in the world – people who will use the same pillow for years and people who like to buy new pillows.

People who prefer new pillows are optimists, they buy a new pillow in anticipation that the new pillow will be better than the old pillow.  It will feel better, it will help them sleep better, it will hold its form better, it will last longer than the previous pillow.  Even though every pillow they have ever purchased has not lived up to their ideal of the perfect pillow, they purchase a new one hoping that this will be the one.  Then after a little while, the new pillow’s form no longer bounces back and they are not sleeping as well as they were. So, in their never-ending optimism they purchase another new pillow.  Hope springs eternal and maybe this time they will find pillow perfection.

People who use the same pillow for years, until it is thread bare and the stuffing is falling out tend to be realists and pragmatists.  They have adjusted their lives to the imperfect reality of their own imperfect pillow.  While they may have an idea of what a perfect pillow would be like, they understand the odds of finding the perfect pillow are remote.  So, they settle in with the pillow they have and make the best of it.  In time the pillow becomes a bit flat and misshapen but that is OK, the pillow is usable and familiar and they accept that.  A new pillow would only disturb the familiar for awhile until the new pillow is broken in enough to become an old pillow. 

So are you a new pillow or an old pillow kind of person?