I checked my email and found that one of my friends had forwarded one of those chain emails again. Such emails usually begin with some motivational words or may even contain a touching story; some stuff that tugs at your heart strings. However it ends off requesting that you forward the message to at least 10 other friends lest be some misfortune would happen. This phenomenon has even spread to SMS.
I personally do not really believe in such superstitions but question of "What if it is true?" still hangs in the air. Still when such emails or SMS reach me, it marks the end of the "pass the parcel" game. Sometimes when I feel the message is meaningful and I wish to forward to my friends, I would edit the message first by deleting the 'curse'; all the "pass to so and so number of people" mumbo-jumbo just gets erased.
I think the reason why such chain mails exist in the first place is because the originator wishes that the message be circulated to as many people as possible. It is believed that everyone is related to everyone in some way; if the first person forwarded the message to all his/her friends, and subsequently all his/her friends forwarded it to all their friends, eventually it could reach out to the entire world. However I feel it is somewhat unethical to suggest misfortune to befall anyone who breaks the chain. I mean if the message is indeed worth sharing, it would naturally be circulated without prompting.
Sometimes it can get real overboard and distasteful, especially since the 'curses' come in wide variety ranging from bad luck to bad relationships, and even physical harm and death. Perhaps this explains why I get into trouble ever so often but I am not exactly the superstitious type.
By writing this, I am not asking my friends not to send me such mail. After all, I would still exercise my power of choice of whether to pass on the 'censored' version or bring about its demise. I do not blame my friends for not exercising their powers as it does pay to be cautious, since some of those 'curses' can really be nasty.
Yet somehow there seems to be no end to how many new chain mails that keep appearing. It is said that "If you can't beat them, join them". So I was thinking since people love forwarding messages, how about forwarding this message of mine:
It is bad luck to be superstitious.
Think for a moment how much unpleasantness occurs when you are superstitious and you will understand what it means.
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