I have .....
a conundrum. Or is it a dilemma? Or maybe both?
The very beginning of the story goes WAY back to the days of my youth. The important part occurred around 15 years ago.
At that time I still corresponded and occasionally talked with a special friend of mine from high school. She had gone thought a divorce some time earlier and recently had gotten serious with another man. I was talking to her one day and she asked me, mostly because of this new person in her life, to promise not to have any more contact with her. Which I did.
A number of years later, in my duties as part of our high school reunion committee, I volunteered to send out newsletters by e-mail. This is where the first of the issues (conundrum or dilemma) happens. Since I promised not to contact her, how could I send her a newsletter? Sending her a newsletter technically is 'contact'.
I reasoned that since this was in an official capacity and she was receiving the same e-mail as all the other classmates that this was not contact as intended in my promise. In other words, I was following the spirit of the promise and not the letter of the promise. An unusual situation - usually we hear of people obeying the "letter of the law" but violating the "spirit of the law". In any case, as with most of the classmates on the mailing list, I received no messages from her.
This is again a reunion year, and I'm still sending out the newsletter. In the most recent newsletter (as of this writing) I asked that any classmates who had moved since the last reunion contact either myself or one of the other committee members with updated information so we could mail them the invitation and other information about the reunion. Much to my surprise I received an e-mail from her with a new mailing address. Since I'm not the one maintaining the post office mailing list (POML) this time, I forwarded her e-mail to that person and replied to her e-mail that I had done so.
Once again, contact that wasn't really contact.
The person maintaining the POML wrote back saying that it looks like she's single again. I took a closer look at the address change and saw that there was also a name change - to her maiden name.
Like I said, I have either a conundrum, a dilemma, or both.
gS.
The very beginning of the story goes WAY back to the days of my youth. The important part occurred around 15 years ago.
At that time I still corresponded and occasionally talked with a special friend of mine from high school. She had gone thought a divorce some time earlier and recently had gotten serious with another man. I was talking to her one day and she asked me, mostly because of this new person in her life, to promise not to have any more contact with her. Which I did.
A number of years later, in my duties as part of our high school reunion committee, I volunteered to send out newsletters by e-mail. This is where the first of the issues (conundrum or dilemma) happens. Since I promised not to contact her, how could I send her a newsletter? Sending her a newsletter technically is 'contact'.
I reasoned that since this was in an official capacity and she was receiving the same e-mail as all the other classmates that this was not contact as intended in my promise. In other words, I was following the spirit of the promise and not the letter of the promise. An unusual situation - usually we hear of people obeying the "letter of the law" but violating the "spirit of the law". In any case, as with most of the classmates on the mailing list, I received no messages from her.
This is again a reunion year, and I'm still sending out the newsletter. In the most recent newsletter (as of this writing) I asked that any classmates who had moved since the last reunion contact either myself or one of the other committee members with updated information so we could mail them the invitation and other information about the reunion. Much to my surprise I received an e-mail from her with a new mailing address. Since I'm not the one maintaining the post office mailing list (POML) this time, I forwarded her e-mail to that person and replied to her e-mail that I had done so.
Once again, contact that wasn't really contact.
The person maintaining the POML wrote back saying that it looks like she's single again. I took a closer look at the address change and saw that there was also a name change - to her maiden name.
Like I said, I have either a conundrum, a dilemma, or both.
gS.