I work in an environment where raging politics and conflicting personalities sometimes get tedious to the extreme. There has been some "stuff" going on lately that has had my nerves feeling just a bit ragged.
So I very much appreciated it when an e-mail was sent out to the whole campus with the following notice at the bottom:
IMPORTANT: This email is intended for the use of the individual addressee(s) named above and may contain information that is confidential, privileged or unsuitable for overly sensitive persons with low self-esteem, no sense of humour or irrational metaphysical beliefs. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying of this email is not authorised (either explicitly or implicitly) and constitutes an irritating social faux pas. Unless the word absquatulation has been used in its correct context somewhere other than in this warning, it does not have any legal or grammatical use and may be ignored.
DISCLAIMER: No animals were harmed in the transmission of this email, although the yorkshire terrier next door is living on borrowed time, let me tell you. Those of you with an overwhelming fear of the unknown will be gratified to learn that there is no hidden message revealed by reading this warning backwards, so just ignore that Alert Notice from Microsoft. However, by pouring a complete circle of salt around yourself and your computer you can ensure that no harm befalls you and your pets. If you have received this email in error, please add some nutmeg and egg whites and place it in a warm oven for 40 minutes. Whisk briefly and let it stand for 2 hours before icing.
Gotta love it.... the actual message dealt with something that people are being rather prickly about. This helped keep it all in perspective and gave me a good laugh that was much needed.
2 comments:
I love it! And how proud the author must be, to see his little writing project making the rounds, bringing cheer to thousands of overstressed office dwellers.
The sad thing is, no one read it. I've asked at least a dozen different people so far. NOT ONE had read the thing, because they are all so used to having the typical required legal disclaimer at the end of all of our messages they just ignore it. So they read the main message and then totally skipped over the best part.
It has become like the hum of a refrigerator...it's there all the time so you cease to hear it.
What this has taught me is to be more MINDFUL of lots of things I may be overlooking or taking for granted simply because they are an expected part of my every day life.
Sometimes it takes EFFORT to remain truly grateful for things like a car that runs, a bladder that functions, food to eat, the ability to see. But just let any one of those - or a million other things - be threatened and you remember how important they truly are.
The trick is to treasure them WITHOUT fear of loss.
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