You know how in between all the business emails, you get all kinds of email junk FWD’d to you every day from well-intentioned friends?  It’s like spam that’s endorsed (vs. unsolicited, which is much easier to delete). 

There are the emails and attachments from ”the guys” who have somehow convinced themselves that you are the perfect compatriot to share piles of what they think are yuck-it-up jokes. You know, the ones that come out of the same distasteful sexist denial closets as: _______ and _____________ and ________ and (fill in your own long list of politicians and star athletes here).

Then there are the “other guys”  (sometimes the same ones) who love to bombard you with x-rated porn talk and photos and videos because they get off on it and can’t imagine anyone not being pleased for the viewings.

Oh, yeah, and less offensive but equally weird, there are the schmaltzes who send every dripping piece of Hallmark-style drivel that gives you the creepy-crawlys just to scroll through them. And pull-ease, don’t dare to not FWD what you agree with or risk being cursed for life.

Well —-it takes all kinds, my Mother used to say (an Irish philosopher, of course!)

Now I’m hardly a prude, and I enjoy a good email joke as much as anybody.  I especially love getting emails filled with spectacular photos of spectacular places (The Noth Pole, outer space, the African “Trench,” Armenia, the inside of a rattlesnake’s fang or a hummingbird’s hummer) . . . stuff I know I’ll probably never see otherwise . . . I guess I’m kind of a National Geographic junkie when it comes to those “Aha!” attachments.

But, you know what? 

The FWD’d emails I like best

are those that make me think.

The best of these that I’ve seen recently (anonymous origins of course) has provoked me to wrap tonight’s post around it because I think it’s something worth sharing, especially on the advent of our joyous and peace-filled Christmas and New Year’s holiday season. Here (with a two-sentence disclaimer) are four great thoughts for the holidays:

Disclaimer: Personally, I try to never use the word “can’t” or “cannot” because I truly believe that everything and anything CAN be done, but this “cannot” list (which follows) stopped me in my tracks.  It made me think.

Tell me what YOU think . . . 

(Comment below or call or “Tweet” me or shoot an email with “4 Things” in the subject line)

FOUR THINGS

YOU CANNOT RECOVER . . .     

1.  The stone, after it’s thrown.

2.  The word, after it’s said.

3.  The occasion, after the loss.

4.  The time, after it’s gone. 

                                                                                   

Put your own spin on this, think about what it means to YOU.  Make the conclusion you come to about it work FOR you, not by regretting, but by being kinder than necessary, kinder than you usually are, kinder perhaps than you want to be.  Go ahead, try it for the holidays! What have you got to lose?  A little kindness?  Hmmmmm.