Send this to 10 people or your cat will die.

Speaking of 9/11 and enragement (ok, I know we weren't speaking of either of those things, and for that matter I'm not even sure enragement is a word--even so), last night I got a text message forward.

Ok, first of all let's just pause a moment and let that sink in. A text message forward. Last time I checked, my phone was not a conduit for junk mail. Most people have to pay for their text messages, or are limited in the amount of free ones that they have. So annoying!

Second point of enragement, the message was this:

"In honor of all those who lost their lives on this day, send this message to 10 people and something good will happen to you. "

Wait. Where's the part where we're honoring "those who lost their lives?" Hmm...I must have missed that 'message'. Oh! I get it, it has nothing to do with 9/11. AT ALL. It's just a cheap excuse to justify another stupid chain letter. At least email forwards make an attempt to give you some sort of 'inspiration,' whether it's a cheesy 'true' story, or rhyming poem there's at least some body to the message.

There's no real message or honor involved, so the only reason to forward it is so that you will get something out of it. It's superstitious crap. Nothing good will happen because of this message, and it IN NO WAY honors anyone! Yes, something good will happen to you sometime after you forward the message, but does a day go by when something good doesn't happen if you're looking for it?

I'm disgusted.

I don't really mean to rag on people who've forwarded this message. I'm sure they didn't really think about it, just passed it on and then felt like they did something to remember September 11. But that's the problem.

Is this the best we can do? Wouldn't it be better to not remember at all than to remember in such a cheap, self-serving way? Why do we fill our lives up with cheap, kitschy, substitutes for emotion? Are we that afraid of actually feeling anything real? I don't have time for forwards, I'm busy with real life.

Disgustedly and rantingly yours,
the chocolate milk girl