Room with a View

You just can't believe everything you see in print. ... Especially over e-mails.People can hit that "forward" button without much thought, and pretty soon we've got an international e-rumor on our hands.Many of us enjoy the inspirational, comical or hopeful stories we get over our computers. Still, many of us would like to confine the charming little anecdotes to "Reader's Digest" and Paul Harvey. I don't mind the stories that we all figure are fables or modern-day fairy tales. Maybe those are kind of like today's version of the troubadour, spreading little nuggets we wish were true. But others — they're just annoying.When a friend gave me a story about Mel Gibson that was circulating, it was the last straw. With the success of the movie, "Passion," he has enjoyed a reinvigorated version of the false story that he was beaten, maimed and his priest raised money for intensive plastic surgery. His faith, and the surgery made him the Hollywood heartthrob he is. The movie "The Man Without A Face" first started this, and it’s been resurrected just recently.There are some e-rumors that are based on truth. Here are a few you might recognize, (and, no, I didn't get the fact verification from an e-mail):
John McCain's POW story about the Pledge of Allegiance
The Littlest Firefighter, the boy with cancer and the firefighters who loved him
The hospitality of Gander, Newfoundland to stranded airline passengers on Sept. 11
Courage at the Tomb of the Unknowns during Hurricane IsabelOther popular ones are completely false:
Leonardo used the same man for Jesus and Judas in the last supper painting
The 9-11 story of Robert Matthews
George W. Bush spent 30 minutes talking with a teen about God at a banquet
Bill Gates’ high school speech about rules of life
Stranded motorist turned out to be Mrs. Nat King ColeMaybe one story we should all take to heart is about the wise man whose reputation had been severely affected by a false story that had circulated about him. One of the people responsible for the story came to the wise man to ask his forgiveness. He said he would do anything to try to make it right. The wise man told him to take a pillow to a cliff overlooking the country, rip open the pillow, scatter the feathers in the wind, and return. The repentant man came back and the wise man said, "Now, go collect every feather." It was impossible to do and was the wise man's way of illustrating the irretrievable consequences of spreading a falsehood.