UNSEND!

Have you ever sent an email to the wrong person? Or, a wrong email to the right person? Or maybe an email you forwarded to the one person who shouldn't read it?

Allow me to tell my story. Hopefully it's not too much worse than your own story, and I'll bet you have one.

I had a 'best' friend once who had a very mean sister. We would talk about the sister for hours and I was as fully supportive as any best friend could be on this topic.

One day while at work, my friend sent me an email that she had received from her mean sister (you're getting what's going to happen here, aren't you?), and it really was a vicious one, so I 'replied' to my friend saying what a bitch her sister was and how she just didn't understand my friend, yada, yada, yada...there was a lot more, but I've forgotten exactly what I said, thank Gawd!

After several minutes, my friend called me to see if I had gotten her email. I said, "Yes...and I emailed you back about it." She said, "I haven't gotten an email...maybe it's just taking longer because of email traffic." (spoken like the true computer incompetents that we were). As she was waiting for my email to find its way to her, and we were still on the phone with each other, it became clear to both of us almost simultaneously...that I had somehow sent the email to her sister instead of her.

"HOLY CRAP!" she said, to which I replied, "OH MY GOD!" Her next response was so priceless and pitiful; she said it with such passion and fear, "CLICK UNSEND, CLICK UNSEND!!"

We both knew there were no 'unsend' buttons on our keyboards, that the email had reached its unintended destination and that we were both screwed...she for having shared her sister's email with me, and of course, I for having responded at all.

My best friend then said to me, "Well, YOU have to fix this! You're the one who sent the email, so you HAVE to fix this." I said, "Got any ideas how I might do that?" She demanded that I send another email to her sister in apology for the first one. And, I must admit, since all of this was done in cyberspace and without any face-to-face confrontation, it was a skosh easier to bow to my friend's pressure and send an email apology:

Dear _______________,
Obviously, I am unbelievably sorry about the email that I inadvertently sent to you just a few minutes ago. And, obviously, that email was meant to go to your sister. I was trying to be supportive for her, and perhaps I took it a bit too far. My greatest hope is that you and your sister can work things out...without my help.

Sincerely,

My best friend and I don't speak much anymore. Not because of this transgression (or maybe, now that I think about it...hmmmmm) but just because we went separate ways in our lives. Be careful before you send an email...or install an UNSEND button on your computer!
KK

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Wanting to press 'Unsend'...that is the equivalent of the 'post edit' after an audition. Every actor does it. You go into an audition and you do your very best and then you have to walk away. But that is not possible. Your mind races on the drive back home. Why did I say that that way and why didn't I do that line better and why can't I remember what I did? It's the post edit and all you want to do is press 'unsend!', punch 'rewind!' and get another chance to do it better. But you only get one chance to do it perfectly. And that's the way real life is too. If you don't do every moment the very best you can in any given situation, you can't press 'Unsend'.

I wish there was an 'ammend' button for my life. If I accidentally insult someone, which I tend to do occasionally, I would like to be able to press 'ammend' and have, 'Wow, your eye wrinkles are getting as deep as the Grand Canyon', change to 'Gee, you look great for your age!' And the person would have no memory of my first remark. See, that's the key. The 'ammend' button would also cause memory loss in the targetted friend. The button would be attached to my key chain so I could pull it out and use it instantly. Think of how this could change the world. No more misunderstandings and people would be walking around wondering why three hours out of every day of their lives keep disappearing. But I do go on, don't I?

I have no idea why you just lost 36 seconds while we were talking and gee, your hair looks great today!
SalGal