Email Forwards and Other Evils of the Modern World

Things I’ve Realized About Myself

I’ve always thought of myself as corny/sappy and not that intellectual/cynical. But maybe, compared to some, I am/am not.

I think “Christmas Shoes” is an awful song. What, the boy’s mother is dying, and rather than spending her last moments with her, he’s trying to buy her shoes? Because Jesus is going to care what her shoes look like? Who the fudge is her mother, Carrie Bradshaw???

People whom I credit with being fairly intellectual and cynical of pap often surprise me, sending me chain emails, like the one purporting to be the Dalai Lama’s personality test, which supposedly gives you great insights based on whether you rank lion over pig. Huh?

I hate chain mail of any type. At their most mundane, I think they show an appalling lack of creativity. On the metaphysical side, I think they are an appalling type of black magick. If you don’t forward this message, bad things will happen to you? Or good things won’t? Just because I won’t forward this frigging stupid, uncreative message? And to send them to people, who then must send them on out of fear … sorry guys. That’s a very mild form of evil.

THAT BEING SAID … there are some people who are very dear to me that sometimes send on these forwards. Assuming the content isn’t an outright urban legend, I usually just delete them. (If it’s an outright untruth, and harmful, like the WalMart half-shaved-kid or wearing-deodorant-causes-cancer, I sent them a link to snopes or breakthechain.org)

When all is said and done, it is the singer not the song. Or the emailer, not the forwarded-hokey-ass-message. People are more important than emails.

No matter how stupid the latter is.