Is E-mail Satanic?

No, of course it's not. But the dropped messages and the miscommunications that sometimes happen seem to be not of this earth.

A few years ago, I worked on revisions to a handbook for camp counselors. Two men, older than I, were the "owners" of the document, so I sent my revisions to them, and they OK'd them. At least I thought they did. After some time, hardcopy of the document arrived at my house. Not a single one of my changes was in it! I emailed these two about it to ask if there was some mistake, and got no reply. Was I steamed! They were stonewalling me!

Except that they weren't. My message simply didn't get to one of them. What actually happened was this: he had mistakenly printed the old (unmodified) version and sent me that. My email reply somehow was lost in transit; he never got it. The other man (who did get my email) forwarded it to him, and eventually we sorted it out.

I believe that Satan is alive and well and somehow manages to make e-mail messages disappear. Exactly how is a topic for another time.