A Love Letter to Scam Artists

I'm of the belief that more people in this world are simply hurt and lonely, than are actually mean-spirited.   – Benny Green; Jazz pianist

 

It’s Valentine’s Day and love is in the air—or at least should be. I haven’t received any little Valentine’s candies or roses or love letters. Just some eight different scam Paypal requests for my money. 

 

My lesser self wants to say to scam artists: 

 

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!!!! Is your life so pathetic that you have nothing better to do than prey on innocent people and try to scam them with this, that or the other thing? If you do manage to cheat someone out of their money, does it bring you satisfaction? Does it fulfill some fantasy you have that people are dumb and deserve to be cheated and look how clever you are? Instead of earning an honest dollar and actually doing some worthy work that contributes to the world and might even help others or make them happy, you are using the precious gift of a human incarnation and using your intelligence to hurt others whom you have never met. Please read that first sentence again.”

 

But because it’s Valentine’s Day and Benny Green is asking me to step up to a more compassionate view of the situation, I’ll simply say to you:

 

“I’m so sorry that you have been somehow hurt. That you haven’t found—yet—the way for your best self to contribute. But don’t give up. It’s never too late to flip all the energy and intelligence you’re using to hurt people and learn how to help them—and yourself as well. If you look hard, I imagine you can find someone—or remember someone—who was kind to you, who saw your better self, who perhaps even loves you. And if that inspires you to learn to love yourself as you deserve, then of course, you wouldn’t want to cause anyone else harm. Since I never met you, I can’t offer you an authentic personal love, but I can say that I understand how hurt people often hurt others and also have witnessed how hurt people have gone in the exact opposite direction to help and heal others. I just finished Maya Angelou’s 3^rd out of 7 volumes of her autobiography. If you need an example, I suggest starting with her and her first book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”

 

Meanwhile, Happy Valentine’s Day. And would you please be so kind as to stay out of my Paypal account?” 

PS The above is also addressed to UPS fakers, Nigerian princes and the folks from "Netflix" who offered to make a movie of my Jazz, Joy & Justice book and pay me $400,000. Any real Netflix people reading this, that's a darn good idea!