I received an email yesterday that irked me.  Perhaps I don’t have the full picture, but it seems to me to be that someone else erred and now a group of us have to pay for it – literally, cash.  That’s my perspective.

I wrote a response.  I did not mention that I thought it was a self-induced crisis.  I explained my moral reasons why I did not fully support the endeavor to begin with (a point on which I had previously been silent).  When I was finished, I said to Bill, “I don’t know if I should send this.”

“Does it feel good?” he asked.  “Usually if it feels good it means you shouldn’t send it.”

“I never send those,” I replied.  “I don’t usually even write those.  No, this doesn’t feel good at all.”  Gut feelings were not helping here.  Sometimes it’s the words we don’t want to say that we really should say.  Sometimes we just need to keep our opinions to ourselves.

I read the email to him.  “That doesn’t sound bad,” he said.

“Maybe I should wait anyway.”

“Good idea,” he concluded.

So it’s been sitting in my draft folder.  And I’ve been waiting for the “reply all”s.  I rarely respond “reply all” – and usually only do it if it is requested (“Please reply all with the dish you plan to bring”).  But some people always seem to reply all.  I’ve been one of 372 people who received an email announcing the birth of a new baby…and had 86 strangers clutter my inbox with reply all: “Congratulations!!”  Why?  Why do you think you need to let all 371 other people know that you offered your welcoming words?  Nobody is keeping track.  Nobody cares.  Just hit “reply”, not “reply all”.  Is it that hard?

So far, no “reply all”s.  Although I’m certain few of us want to pay out of pocket to solve the situation, I don’t know how the others view the situation.  I’m sure that nobody else shares my moral dilemma, which stems from me not taking the moral high ground 6 months ago.  Gut feelings were working well back then, and I pushed them aside, and now I regret it.

{sigh}