Unforgettable

I have a love hate relationship with forwards. Sometimes the pictures are cute, the stories are funny or heart warming and there is no awful tagline. But most of the time, the story is saccharine sweet, terribly manipulative and obviously false. So why do so many people send them on? I think, on some strange level it’s that hope that just won’t die in all of us. The, “I know this is ridiculous, but maybe if I forward this on I will get a new car from an estranged uncle in Tanzania just like Joe Henderson from White Peaks, Alabama”. It’s the just maybe in all of us that keeps these mostly awful things circulating. But after thinking about it, I guess I don’t mind. Even though it is obviously false, I want to believe that some young white man in the 60’s would stop and help Mrs. Nat King Cole get to her dying husband without even knowing who she was. I want to believe that children see Jesus and angels, and can smell Him in the spring rain and that they tell people about it who really like sending emails to everyone in their address book.

So, though I think many stories and forwards are way over the top and most shouldn't be forwarded on, I like to think it shows our hope for the good, the beautiful and the kind. We want to believe these fantastic stories because they show people at their best, or they caution us to not act our worst. These stories place us in a world of the definite: where good is immediately rewarded and recognized and evil is vilified and punished. The reasons for behavior seem so clear even if they are not so in real life. I think the adult world could use a few more concretes; kind strangers with no ulterior motives, cute puppies, beautiful sunsets, silly pictures. Things get so grey sometimes in our complicated world. So, if these forwards must continue (and that they don't take the place of real communication among friends and loved ones), if it is the way in which you express your faith in the goodness of humanity, and your hope for kindness, if it is the way in which you can tell those you care about that you love them; then keep clicking send.