Chain email. Does anyone really do this stuff? I mean back in the Dark Ages (you know, before email), I used to hear about chain letters but only actually got one. Now, I guess like spam, it's just easier to send them so I get them all the time. But I very rarely respond. I have to be in just the right mood and usually it's with no real expectations that anything will come of it. I almost dare the universe to actually make the thing happen.
And yet when I don't respond, I feel guilty. Not just because someone took the time to send it to me, but because I actually am a bit superstitious and have a very slight fear that something bad may happen if I don't pass the email on. But on one hand, the sender may not have actually sent it to me with any personal realization that I was going to receive it, but they needed 15 people to send it to and I was in their "Contacts" list.
Of course, the guilt increases when it's one of those touchy, feely subjects like, "Beautiful Women Week" or "Save the Children" or something similar. But really, I hope that the Beautiful Women in my life know how important they are to me without me needing to clutter their Inboxes with a mass distributed, and thereby impersonal, letter of devotion. I would rather hand pick an ecard (possibly mass distributed) for each person and send it to them. And if I have to send an email to 15 people before you'll call me to say you love and appreciate me, then we really should have a talk.
3 comments:
I usually delete them, unless they say something really sweet that I have not seen before, and then I usually delete the "send this to 10 people..." part at the end. Yeah, sometimes I feel that twinge of guilt, and wonder if the person who sent it to me is thinking, "Gee, maybe she's not my friend! She didn't send it back!" but then I realize, like you, that we don't need to send an e-mail to let people know we love them! Just tell them!
Oh - and I don't have to send an e-mail to prove that I believe in Jesus! Good grief!
It's kinda like those address labels you get in the mail already printed with your name and address. They are usually from a charity and are soliciting funds - and they have gone to the trouble to look you up. So, do you send them a donation - however grudingly - or do you just keep the labels and use them?? I don't think it's fair to "play the guilt card".
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