Serial Emails

I despise serial emails. You know the kind nearly everyone dreads getting. They have some cheesy saying or group of sayings, cute photos, prayer chains, etc and at the end say things like send this to everyone you love, or everyone in your address book or 10 people etc within however many minutes, hours, days. They usually promise something will happen (it never does), love, luck (either good or bad) or something else equally unattainable through an email. How can sending an email bring anything like that?

I look at the address lists linked to each forwarded email and wonder how many people have sold those lists to spammers. Why don't people keep addresses private, Just a quick by cut and paste then sending BCC can save a lot of grief. Nobody in my address book will ever have to worry about me passing on their address to be copied and sold to spammers.

These emails sometimes challenge our values like "If you love God you will pass this on to everyone in your address book." My relationship with God is between He and I and He knows how I feel. I say my prayers but they are my own prayers. I don't see how sending the prayers of someone else makes me any closer to the Lord. My true friends know I have a personal relationship with God so I shouldn't have to prove it by sending emails saying I do.

Exactly how does me sending an email support service men and women? I find sending an email as significant as putting on a bumper sticker where none of the purchase proceeds go to the troops or their families. I am guilty of doing a little cut and paste of some of the more beautiful poems and photos to pass to people who have family in the service. Not as a challenge for them to send on to others. Simply because they are beautiful. My support for the troops comes with prayer and volunteer work and not is some empty gesture.

My least favorite serial emails are the ones that claim they are showing how much I am loved when I get the email that is sent to me and everyone else in the address book of the sender. I know I am loved. I don't need to have a poem or photo to remind me. Every once in a while I remind the people in my address book they are loved by sending a note. They are written individually to each person. They carry sentiments and information to each addressee. If I send a photo it is one I have taken or one I chose because it reminds me of my friend.

I love my friends enough to not waste their time or share their addresses. If it is something interesting to look at or funny or beautiful I may pass it on but I cut out the part that requests the recipient to send it on to everyone else. I send it only to the one or two friends or family it relates to. If my friends like it they will pass it on to those who will appreciate it without a prompt, challenge or promise of reward. Who needs that kind of pressure anyway?