January 05, 2009

Recall

There are a lot of things I still need to understand about computers, but one thing on my to-do list is to learn how to use a recall function for an email message. I know there is such a thing because the other day I started to open an email and it disappeared right before my eyes leaving a notice in its place, “This email has been recalled.” What a great feature. Of course the key is to recall the message before the receiving party has a chance to open it. There are times that I’d like to have a recall button for something I’ve said. But alas, when I can’t get those words back, the next best thing is to use the Scripture’s ‘please forgive me’ button.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gail;

-----If you give the e-mail recall button just a bit of thought, it really doesn’t work any better than our inability to recall something said. Everything is subject to the flow of time. An e-mail sent is sent, whether it is read or not, just as a word spoken is spoken whether heard or not. The only difference is that the message of the e-mail hangs through time on someone’s hard drive. The same might be true for the spoken word if you or your listener had a recorder running. Although you might be able to recall the email at a later time, or erase the recording, both have become a permanent of history, whether or not read or heard.
-----The true tracks of time are the effects an event has upon what it touches. Both the e-mail and the spoken word have left tracks upon the heart and mind of the writer or speaker. Time has entered those tracks into the annuls of history; they can not be erased. And these are very real tracks. Sometimes they are more relevant than the tracks left when the e-mail is read or the recording heard. What plays inside us is an important and real part of what happens around us. Every thought effects character and personality to at least a minute degree. And sometimes, by major degrees. Those effects are even less recallable or erasable than are the e-mail or the recording. But they can be changed. Although apology will not need to be made if the intended reader has not seen the e-mail, repentance will.

Love you all,
Steve Corey

Christian Ear said...

Steve,
You come up with some really good extensions of thought.
Gail