Once there was an email....

Last month I received an email from an old colleague of mine. By the way, he's a he. If you don't see how that's relevant, just read on.

The email was addressed, I assume, to virtually everyone in his address book given the huge volume of names in the header. This was the message (names have been blurred to protect the identities of the people concerned):

I took note of the number, and went on as I usually did. After a few days, another email arrived:

What the f...? In the days that followed I get even more email:

Eventually, my former colleague, the one who sent the very first email, decided to come out into the open and issue a statement of his own. After giving a brief background about he and the other guy met, and his disappointment over the other's lack of discretion, he said this:

He then picks himself up and then says:

I guess he finally came to terms with the entire incident. The last installment in this email thread is from someone who summed everything up quite nicely:

Truer words can't be spoken. There's a lesson to be learned here I'm sure. I won't spell it out anymore. I'm sure you can figure it out. :-)

If any one of those involved in this email thread manages to read this post, I humbly beg your indulgence. The story may have not turned out that well for a friend of ours, but we could all stand to learn a lesson or two from this incident.