Chain letters, have you ever received them ? Before the PC became a common household item, I had received a few of these through the snail mail. In those, my younger days, I used to fret over them, and there were a couple or three that I actually did follow through, literally repeat writing 7 copies (7 seemed to be the favourite number and still is). But nothing noteworthy happened, neither for the chains I continued ( I didn't get my windfall) nor the ones I 'broke' (my room did not burn down).
A few weeks ago, I received one at work and it stated a list of sins committed by the common man. I was to add 2 more common sins to that list that was already there (it was a very long list), and pass it along to 12 friends and add the email listed below as the 13th address. If I did not follow through, 3 evil events would 'befall me' within the next 3 days and I would only recover from it by not eating meat for 7 days. (the magic number again, and some comic relief !!).
Yes, they seem to have multiplied via the email these days. While it is easier to act on them, I don't follow through on them. They are mostly less ominous sounding too ( no curses or 'bad luck will befall you' nonsense). There are a few that I do pass on and that's usually if they involve Blessings and wishes. I do it for the sake of passing on those well-wishes or prayers but I don't follow the number that is specified. Why do people do that, attach number of times or specify number of emails to send out.
If it's a good message to pass on or a special blessing why not, by all means, send it out without conditions or ultimatums, just good old fashion goodwill.
I'm not knocking anyones' superstitions here, it's just my take.
(PS : A techie friend tells me that in some cases it's purely for data mining..so beware..!)
I should have been dead long ago and many misfortunes should have hit me by now .. if those emails carry any truth. I at times end up cursing people who say the some misfortune is going to befall us if we do not fwd this to some number of people etc.
ReplyDeleteIt is the email thing in my life though.. never go one through snail mail...
Haha now that you mentioned it, yes those chain mails when we were younger. What a waste of money and time. hey thank goodness we have the internet now, but who knows if they carry any viruses. Well here is a blessing for happy times.
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