EMAIL SPREADS WELCOME GOSPEL

So, I came home before Shabbos from a week in the hospital with a second bout of pancreatitis.

Unrepentant in my Type A behavior, I wait for a moment to steal downstairs, yes, to check the email accumulated during days of sensory deprivation. Holy smoke, 257 epistles have stuffed my mailbox in my absence.

About 150 were pure spam – mortgage promos, assurances of renewed natural sexual vitality, cheap long distance rates, Jewish jokes resurrected from Borscht Belt oblivion and gratuitously sent my way, “FYI, to punch up your sermons.”

You know, if we slam the institution of email for its intrusions of spam and porn, then we must also be willing to sing its praises when it shows itself as a vehicle of goodwill. For nice people, email has afforded an opportunity to be even nicer. Of course, a phone call would be more personal. A card, even better. And the art of gracious hand-penned correspondence is all but dead. But, email has become a wonderful medium for spontaneously offering sentiments of kindness, concern, thankfulness, friendship that might have otherwise, lamentably, not been seized by the moment.

Case in point: Among my 75-or-so remaining emails, over 50 were from a variety of well-wishers sending their prayers and concern over my recent illness. Every word touched me as profoundly sincere and never raised the specter that any one of those sweet, thoughtful people was “too busy to do anything more meaningful.” The very freewheeling nature of email made the greetings more, not less, intimate.

So, the first lesson to be learned is that, Milosevic aside, there are still lots and lots of decent, honorable people out there who are eager to share a word of kindness when someone is in distress. This in itself may not save the world, but it is one heckuva good reason to stay optimistic. And, if technology and cyberspace present more opportunities to spread the niceness, we have reason to celebrate its extraordinary powers.

A second, more personal lesson: My Jewish coreligionists were certainly forthcoming with their kind wishes. But, the vast majority of the email prayers came from my non-Jewish acquaintances – Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, MCC, Hindu, Baha’i, Buddhist, liberal, fundamentalist, straight, gay, white, black, yellow, brown . . . let’s see; did I leave anyone out?

This wondrous outpouring of goodwill, I am certain, was not a function of celebrity or high community profile. I suffer no such delusions. I am just a curious guy who is on a walkabout to taste the different, invariably delicious, flavors of religious experience in the community, to savor the individuals and organizations that propose to do some good in our midst, and to listen to the potentials for further goodness percolating up from the cracks in the sidewalk. It’s something that anyone and everyone should try.

And you know the ultimate benefit? On your walkabout you will invariably meet a truckload or two of decent, honorable people of differing colors, creeds, theologies, and world-views, with whom you may rejoice, argue, disagree, compromise, and ponder a vision of the common good.

Such was the spectrum of folks who took a moment to wish me well when I needed it most. They are the cherished acquisitions of my walkabout, whose prayers to Yahweh, Jesus, Allah, Vishnu, et al, obviously ascended heavenward, but found no earthbound home more grateful than my own heart.

My encouragement to all of you: Go on your own walkabout. You, too, will acquire boundless good. Many tugs pull a community apart, but a community cannot help but be beloved if it still finds the instinct to rally to people who would otherwise have to bear their pain alone.