It’s a shame that most of the geniuses in this world aren’t teachers or scientists or artists. They’re advertisers. To my mind, no one in the world has a better sense of human nature, especially the pitfalls of human nature. Their knowledge could be put to much better, more positive use.

For example: There’s a new email service out there that’s offering 1 GB of storage space for all your necessary emails (incidentally, I have six invites for it, email me if you’d like one). The program is only in its beta version now, which is why the company is doling out the invites like it’s the weightlifter behind the velvet rope, judging how cool your clothes are. Or is it? I’d love to know the proportion of people who want invites for this system and how many there are. Perhaps it’s nothing more than the trendiness factor that’s being mediated by this perceived scarcity. The desire for competition and to be a part of a group is stoked by these invites. Either way, it’s a very clever idea.

On the flipside of things, this program’s selling point (besides the kitsch factor) is the silo-sized amount of storage space for old emails. I’m not so sure we should be holding on to these things. For business people, government people, I know many emails will be important in the future. But what about the average American, whose life doesn’t revolve around email, who lives day to day in the real world, engaging in much more real-life contact? The communicative device, email, is suddenly imbued with so much falsified importance that people start to think, “hey, I was deleting my emails, because they’re unnecessary triggers of memories that weren’t going to be significant or touching enough to remember for daily use anyway. Thank goodness this company allows me to save all of ‘em.”

My point is, certain occasional emails, of the hypersweet or touchstone variety, can be saved. That makes sense; it’s a verbal photograph of a seminal moment. But saving every one? It’s not right. Emotion is diluted. And as much a part of human nature as it is to be competitive, to want, to find solace in the apparent substance of materiality, it is equally necessary and beneficial to learn to let go. Your body regrows itself from the inside out, shedding cells all the time. There will be new emails, don’t you worry. Let’s hop along and be joyful in the present.