'C' is for cliché
I'd just eaten breakfast when my inbox flashed the new mail icon: another sickly, heartfelt story about a handicapped kid invited to play baseball in the ninth inning, only to have the kids he's playing against deliberately throw the game so that he can enjoy a brief moment of triumph. One of those beauty-of-the-human-spirit scenes. His team cheers and lifts him up onto their shoulders, father musses hair, cue strings and horns, pan up, freeze-frame. Roll credits to bad country ballad written by nondescript female Reba Macintyre wannabe.
I have to confess that despite my instincts, I did find myself warming to this particular anecdote: it was touching in its way, and I couldn't avoid a smile. And then I read the 'afterthought', which should probably be retitled "A futile attempt at emotional blackmail".
"AND, NOW A LITTLE FOOTNOTE TO THIS STORY: We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, people think twice about sharing.
"The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces.
"If you're thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that you're probably sorting out the people on your address list that aren't the "appropriate" ones to receive this type of message.
"Well, the person who sent you this believes that we all can make a difference. We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the 'natural order of things'.
So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice:
Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up that opportunity, and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?
You now have two choices:
1. Delete this.
2. Forward it to the people you care about.
Friends are quiet angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly."
That's right, and remember, there are no strangers; just friends we haven't
met yet. Anybody got a bucket?
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