Why do some things make you feel so guilty?

I just had one of those highly inspirational e-mails – you know the kind of thing I’m sure, but this one said:

“Never save something for a special occasion. Every day in your life is a special occasion”.

Now, it’s not the sentiment that I want to draw your attention to – even though I actually think that one is one of the best around. In fact, many of these messages have really good things to say or for us to think about, but I often don’t like to receive them. So why is this – it’s got nothing to do with the message, or the person who sent it to me – but everything to do with those horrid few sentences at the end. You know the bits I mean – the bits that say forward this to 5 of your friends or you will die of Dengue fever or forward this to 5 of your friends or suffer bad luck for a year or forward this to 5 of your friends and something good will happen or even forward this to 15 of your friends and you will win the lottery on Saturday! Why, why, why??? I am now taking to stripping out all of that and sending them on to the people to whom I think they will make a difference but secretly I fear that Dengue fever is just waiting around the corner. What is it about the power of words, that those delivered by total strangers are able to make me feel guilty about not forwarding them – and – I know I am not alone! It’s this whole guilt thing that leads to people forwarding chain letters around the world because they are too frightened not to ………

Well, I think I've found the solution to nasty tropical diseases for anything I get that I don't want to send on - it's Chain Letters Anonymous!