I have filters in place for precisely these kinds of emails...

And yet, I'm often strangely compelled to look at them. I get this kind of crap from my parents, most of it having to do with religion or god and, nowadays, politics. This one was sent to me by my mom. The line breaks are exactly how they were in the copy I received:

Subject: Profound thought

There was
a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She
hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always
there for her. She told her boyfriend, 'If I could only see
the world, I will marry you.'

One day,
someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages
came off, she was able to see everything, including her
boyfriend.

He asked
her,'Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?' The
girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The
sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected
that. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life
led her to refuse to marry him.

Her
boyfriend left in tea
rs and days later wrote a note to her
saying: 'Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before
they were yours, they were mine.'

What a shallow, selfish bitch! Firstly, what's with the arbitrary conditional, "I'll marry you if I can see"? And the boyfriend "donated" his own eyes? Both of these hypothetical people need intensive therapy.

This must be what abstaining from sex before marriage does to people. Trading your eyes for sex, if that isn't true love...

But there's more!

This is
how the human brain often works when our status changes.
Only a very few remember what life was like before, and who
was always by their side in the most painful situations.

Life Is a
Gift

Today
before you say an unkind word - Think of someone who can't
speak.

Before
you complain about the taste of your food - Think of someone
who has nothing to eat.

Before
you complain about your husband or wife - Think of someone
who's crying out to GOD for a companion.

Today
before you complain about life - Think of someone who went
too early to heaven.

Before
whining about the distance you drive Think of someone who
walks the same distance with their feet.

And when
you are tired and complain about your job - Think of the
unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had your
job.

And when
depressing thoughts seem to get you down - Put a smile on
your face and think: you're alive and still
around.

So the real lesson of the boyfriend who gave his eyes away to his shallow sightless girlfriend is that there's always someone out there worse off than you? I'm lost.

No, the real message is one of invalidation and dismissal: Don't complain and don't bitch, because you're actually really lucky, you just don't know it. Want to leave your physically abusive husband? Don't! There are people out there who are lonely! Are you depressed and want to kill yourself? Well cut it out! Babies are being aborted as we speak! Do you hate your job? Don't get another one, just shut your trap and smile!

This tripe makes me so angry.