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The woman was terribly upset. Big tears rolled lazily down her
cheeks ruining her make-up as they fell from her face. She was
showing me an anonymous letter she had received a day earlier. The
typed note accuses her husband of philandering. It was a nasty
script. There was, of course, no signature.
She asked what I thought she should do with the
letter. “Tear it up,” I said quickly, “it’s not worth the
paper it’s written on.”
The first thing I do when I open a letter is
look for the signature of the writer. If there is none, I don’t
bother reading it. Experience has taught me that such letter are
ordinarily poison pen letters written by people lacking in dignity
and nobility. The individual who sends vicious notes to people
without signing his name is not only a coward. He is a man who is
totally lacking in self-confidence that he dare not stand by what he
writes. He is so unsure of himself and what he has written that he
fears to come out into the open and face the possible consequences
of his words.
The anonymous letter writer is a shadowy figure.
He prefers to hide behind the veil of anonymity because he is child
of darkness and is afraid of the light. He thrives in the nooks and
corners of our society. The acid letters he writes give him a false
sense of strength and courage. They help him to fool himself into
believing that the is not the miserable coward that he knows he is
in reality.
The destructive anonymous poison pen writer is
basically a very closed and dishonest person. He distrusts people
and is suspicious of them. He feels very inadequate about himself.
Usually, he finds difficulty in effectively communicating with
others.
We can never stop these poor individuals from
writing their sick letters. But what we can do is ignore them and
refuse to allow them to upset us and trouble our hearts. We can fill
our waste baskets with their unsigned pages. We can refuse their
words entry into our minds.
The only way to fight the vicious anonymous
letter is to ignore it so completely that you refuse to read even
one line. I don’t know of any other effective means, and I believe
I’ve tried them all.
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If you have problems about drugs, alcohol and
behavior/attitude call my office at 820-6107 or 825-1771 or e-mail
me at gvcbuenca@vasia.com or write me at P.O. Box 2099 MCPO, Makati
City.
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