e-mail overload

Sorting Through E-Mail

I get a lot of e-mail, and a good portion of it is from people sharing their newsletters, announcements, penis lengtheners, nose shorteners, and anything I might want from Canadian pharmacies. Fortunately some of it goes to the spam file. Some people get on a rant and send multiple e-mails that are all forwarded messages in the forms of jokes, political opinions, and “send this to 20 friends or you will die” messages. Though I often delete some of these unsolicited messages, many of them have value and should probably be read and considered. I have probably deleted or thrown away items of value for the sake of time. But I rationalize that behavior by positing that I will probably see the message again from another person or in another form. Part of the problem is that because of my own state of overwhelm, I hesitate to send out a newsletter for fear that it will be considered a nuisance by others. I don’t have an answer to this situation. I have asked a couple of people to cease with the jokes or political missives with which I heartily disagree. I am old school in the respect that I almost always respond to an e-mail that is written to me and not to the masses. My only real solution is a file called “articles of interest” which I may never read and my favorite button DELETE. I just hope I don’t miss something important. I’ll close with one final anecdote, related to “snail mail.” It was October of 1976, and I received a letter that looked like junk mail. I almost threw it away, but decided to open it up. It was a job offer from the Government of American Samoa. I got the job, and spent a year of my life there, which was a life-transforming experience. My son Billy was born there, as was the idea for my doctoral dissertation. And so it goes…