What's the word?

I know there are a select group of religious folks out there that think the Internet is the return of or a tool that Satan/Devil will use to gather his minions and wreak havoc on the earth. I’m not that religious, but what I do know is that thanks to the Internet, a wealth of information and opinions from around the globe, raw and uncensored by any large publishing media are available for those with access to it.  For that reason alone, the Internet is a fantastic place.

Here is just one example to back that up. Today, while chatting with my Dad, we discussed sending cash via regular post, in a birthday card.  I knew this wasn’t the best idea, but I had heard before that it might be illegal as well.  So I opened up Firefox and decided to do a little digging.  Browsing through my Google results, I found that it is not illegal to send cash in the United States and Canada; although not recommended, but it is illegal in Barbados (my folks birthplace).  All done within 15 to 30 seconds, no phone book, no yellow pages, no waiting on hold and no Encyclopedia Britannica…  You can’t beat that.  And here’s the real kicker, in my search results I ran into a message forum on Snopes.com that offered the following gem, posted by Charlie23.

A mail carrier was finishing his route, and in the last mailbox he found an outgoing letter addressed in shaky handwriting to “God”. Not sure what to do with it, he shows it to some colleagues back at the post office and they decide to open it. Inside, written in the same frail script there is a simple letter:

“Dear God, I am an 83 year old widow living on a very small pension. Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had a hundred dollars in it which was all the money I had until my next pension check. Without that money, I have nothing to buy food with. I have no family to turn to, and you are my only hope. Can you please help me?”

They were all touched by the letter, so they passed it around the office and took up a collection, winding up with $96. The carrier put the letter back in the envelope along with the money and the next day he slipped it back into the same box. A few days later there was another letter, again addressed to “God”. Expecting some quaint note, he took it back to the office and everybody huddled around as he opened it. Inside was a letter that read:

“Dear God, How can I ever thank you enough for what you did for me? Thanks to your generosity, I was able to buy groceries and pay all my bills for the month. I told all of my friends how you answered my prayers, but I noticed there was 4 dollars missing. I’m sure it was those thieving bastards at the post office.”

A true classic.  You just can’t mess with the old folks, they’ll get you every time.  Thanks to Colin Smyth for letting me borrow his “old lady” artwork.  Check out his blog and works, he’s quite an artist.