Unhappily Ever After

This is concerning forwarded emails and instant messages, and I would really appreciate it if everyone read the whole entry (parts 1 and 2) because I'm sure many of you feel the same way about these things as I do, and we can all benefit from it. I will cover the instant messages in Part 2. This is not directed towards anyone, but I thought it was a good time to cover these issues.

I am one of those people that doesn't care for the type of forwarded emails that include a message saying that if you don't forward this to "so many people" in the next 10 minutes you'll have bad luck for the rest of your life, or you'll drop dead, or they will say the opposite, forward this and you'll be rich in 2 hours, or live to be 100, ect... As a child, I stepped on hundreds and hundreds of cracks - and they never broke my mother's back, LOL. Such BS! 

I DO NOT reply to or forward those emails, so go ahead and call me the chain breaker, but it ends with me. One reason is that every time an email is forwarded, the email addresses of everyone else who received it prior is right there, visible for the whole world to see. People usually click on "forward to all" so that adds everyone who is on that persons address book onto the email. I'm sorry, but to me, that is an invasion of privacy, and trust - if you stop and think about it.

I do not delete those emails right away. I read them first because some of them include very important information, or they include funny pictures or poems or stuff like that which is nice to see every once in a while... BUT, I still will not forward those, so if anyone does not want a chain email to be broken, then please don't send it to me because it won't go any further. Like I said, I don't mind emails being forwarded to me if it is useful, adorable or makes me say awwwww.

The reason for this entry is because I just received one of those forwarded emails from someone I know and my first thought was, "oh no, not another one of these." After scrolling down past the zillion email addresses, the first thing it said in bold type is "I hope I do not hear of anyone breaking this or see it deleted." Whoa!!! A little bossy aren't we? As I read the email and kept on scrolling down, I literally felt as if I had been kicked in the stomach. OMG, it was so powerful that it made me cry instantly. I sat here and cried because that was my first time seeing that message, and the pictures, except for the last one.

I have decided to share this email here in my journal, (since I don't forward such things) because my son is a soldier, so this will always affect me, and it has a very powerful message. I will copy and paste the email, but delete the "chain" message because it is not necessary, and I really doubt that the original message included it in the first place. I will also have to shrink the pics so they will fit.

 

Yes... it is like that!

Count your blessings,

 

pray for them,

talk to your Creator

and the next time when...

the other car cuts you off
and you must hit the brakes,

or you have to park a little further from Walmart than you want to be,

or you're served slightly warm food
at the restaurant,

 

or you're sitting and cursing the traffic
in front of you,

 

or the shower runs out of hot water,

Think of them

protecting your freedom!

Written by mmartinez07 Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

• #22 Comment from heathermarie3073 
  10/7/06 10:05 PM | Permalink

  WOW, that was awesome!!  Thanks for sharing that with all of us.  It's so true, it's easy to get caught up in our own little world and sit and complain about stuff when we should stop and think of all the things that we should be thankful for, especially our freedom which the men & women in the armed forces help to protect while we are comfortable in our homes, sleeping in warm beds etc.  
  xoxo, Heather
• #21 Comment from schoolgal040 
  10/5/06 12:27 AM | Permalink

  Hi Mandy~
  Those are some very powerful pictures and I also cried. I made myself look at them a few times before posting this comment. Thank you for sharing them.
  
  I am with you Mandy, I'm also the "chain breaker"....BIG TIME. If you want to send something to somebody that inspirational or poetry, that's great. But don't "forward" it so everybody gets your email address! Copy/paste it and send it individually. It's so simple to do! And nothing is more irritating than getting an email with "instructions" like you wrote about. Most of those types of email are spam and its just really annoying ya' know?
  
  Hugs,
  Gayla
  http://journals.aol.com/schoolgal040/SoMuchMore/
• #20 Comment from penniepooh 
  10/4/06 10:28 PM | Permalink

  Those pictures are really intense. Thanks for the reminder that those serving our country need our prayers.
  Hugs,
  Penny
  http://journals.aol.com/penniepooh/pennys-pieces-of-ohio/
• #19 Comment from chat2missie 
  10/3/06 2:38 PM | Permalink

  I don't mind getting those types of email, but I don't forward them either.  I just delete after reading.  Guess we are chain breakers! LOL
  Missie
  http://journals.aol.com/chat2missie/MissiesUpsideDownWorld/
• #18 Comment from tendernoggle 
  10/3/06 10:57 AM | Permalink

  I JUST COPY AND PASTE TOO......I TOO HAVE RECEIVED THIS ONE.....IT IS SO AWESOME AND TELLS THE TRUTH.
  GOD BLESS AND KEEP YOUR SON SAFE FROM ALL HARM.
  LOVE YA, CARLENE