Email Bliss: Are You Hip, Hot or Blissfully Dated?
“Four things come not back: The spoken word, The sped arrow, The past life, The neglected opportunity” Proverb
Email Bliss: It arrives in a jiffy and stays forever...
About a month or so ago, a student in my program offered to exchange email addresses so we could stay in touch. As I uttered the word @ AOL, he burst out laughing. “Oh no, Ms. Frank, you must lose this email as it dates you back to the days when computers took forever to load.” Hmmm, I thought, I never measured my age or level of hipness by my email address but I suppose some people do. I laughed it off and insisted he write it down anyway. Mind you, I do have both gmail and ymail accounts however, I must confess that because my AOL account has been around since … well, you understand, I regularly share it without thinking much about it.
“People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.’ Let us not erect walls without doors of friendliness or windows of love.” Joseph Fort Newton
Email Bliss? Designing Women & Those 1980's Shoulder pads...
Honestly, I truly don’t recall getting the memo about hip and un-hip email address providers. Back in the day, if you were averse to paying for email service, you picked a popular free hotmail address and left it to the providers to duke it out. Plus, I don’t know anyone who didn’t love the movie “You’ve Got Mail” with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan and that trademark AOL greeting we have all come to love/hate. After our chat, I mozzied on, blissfully ignorant about the ramifications of having an email address that makes you look like you wore a 1980s mega shoulder pad power suit to a 2010 edgy party… Get my drift? Should I care? Life went on and nary another vocal reaction to our email choices until last week.
Well, as if my last email bashing experience wasn’t enough, I was confronted or rather accosted by another friend recently who chose to throw diplomacy out the window when she uttered; “Oh, Oh, has anyone told you that you must be a dinosaur to have AOL?” What? I like my AOL, Gmail and Ymail accounts and I think I’m a pretty hip, social media savvy chick out there… However, my AOL address flies off my lips a bit faster than the other two because I’ve had it a bit longer. Does that mean I’m an email Dinosaur? Go figure.
The truth is that there are pros and cons to the email service you choose and people do rave about the providers that help them limit spam and get their database organized efficiently. You might choose to have a personalized email address, a company address or any of the many email account providers out there. What you choose to use is entirely your preference so choose and use it proudly. I’m curious about how email addresses are obtained in other parts of the world. Do you pay for email or is it free?
I like all of my email accounts and I will start using the other two accounts more often, but please, next time we exchange addresses, spare me the categorizations; just breathe, smile, and say “Thank You!”
“The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come.”- Peter Ustinov
Email Bliss: OWN Friendly Challenge...
While still on the subject of emails, one of the Best Emails popped up in my box last week. It said:
Let The Voting Begin: The audition video you submitted to Your OWN Show can now be viewed on OWN’s website. Are you as excited as we are?
In case you’re wondering, I recently decided to jump in, feet first, and put myself in the arena as a full fledged contestant in the search for the next fortunate soul to win their Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) show. I typically don’t enter contests like this because I often wonder about how one navigates through the masses to get heard. However, after a rather fun, though all night sit-in for the Linden, New Jersey, open casting call, which I attended with a local friend from my village, I started to seriously re-think my position on the video component.
Once I confirmed that only one open casting call was allowed by the rules, I forgo my plan to drive to Atlanta and mulled over pushing past my reservations and general concerns about a video submission. I discussed it with my kids and other family members and the response was “Go for it!” My twins were eager to help me find the right videocam recorder for the shoot. My twins, who are card carrying members of the tech savvy, impatient teen set, assured me that a gritty “one take street reporter” video would be a viable contribution to the contest.
We all agreed that since pets rule in our household and we had supported and raised money for the Best Friends Animal Society in our Live Your Best Life Oprah walk, my show would be on Pets. Our family cat, Tangy, was in my submitted video. I grew up with and love animals/pets – all forms of domesticated and wildlife; part of my life was spent in a village with farm animals and we had dogs, goats, cows and all types of domesticated animals. Heck, my mom even had a chicken egg farm for a while.
” We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” Immanual Kant
“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” Anatole France
Animals & Pets Galore: We love them all...
On my OWN page, I shared that the contest has been a journey of grace, family love, and faith in the good that comes from an honest effort to not let life’s setbacks stop me from making a comeback. I believe we can all do our part to honor and applaud the spirit of those who can’t speak for themselves; animals, babies, the very sick and the silenced. We must support and applaud them too.
On one level, my show is about nurturing, applauding, healing, and learning, embracing, loving and understanding the world of animals/pets. True. Pets love their owners unconditionally; domesticated animals live on grace and the care of their owners, wild animals and, ultimately all animals, live by God’s grace and the gifts and challenges of Mother Nature. On a deeper level, my show is about making positive, loving and respectful connections in our exchanges with each other. There is a connection between how we feel and how we treat our animals/pets, other humans and lifeforms.What do we see in the lives of loving animals that can be a lesson in living for each of us?
What are your thoughts on email and the way others view our addresses? Did you join the OWN challenge? Do share. Your feedback is always appreciated. Hope you had a safe and restful July 4th Weekend Celebration!
PHOTO CREDITS:
All photos ~ courtesy of Google Images
OWN ~ via Discovery Network
Until Next Time…
Ask. Believe. Receive. ©
Elizabeth Obih-Frank
