Romantic Email
Joe Dobbie made the news in July 2006 after attending a party and meeting a girl who he fell for and then subsequently sending her a romantic e-mail.
Unfortunately, his e-mail was passed onto the girl's sister who then forwarded it to a number of friends and eventually thousands of people ended up reading it. He was inundated with responses from people – about half were abusive – whilst the rest were conciliatory and complimentary, or were offers of dates and he received messages and phone calls from as far away as Nepal, Australia and South Africa.
Here's Joe's email;
FROM:
TO:
SUBJECT:
Hello,
It’s Joe - we met at xx's party.
I hope you don’t mind me getting your e-mail address from the e-mail that xx sent to us all; it is a bit sneaky of me. It was wonderful to meet you on Saturday, and I wonder if you would consider meeting me for coffee sometime; maybe at the Tate Modern?
OK. This is where my common sense is telling me to stop? Keep it simple and positive Joe.
And the probability of me listening to that voice? Experience has taught me that it is not worth putting up a fight; I will end up giving in to the part of me that never wants to find itself shaking its head and muttering ‘if only?’
This is the part where I throw caution to the wind; the part where I listen to my heart and remember that I should live my life as an exultation and revel in the opportunity to try; the part where I refuse to apologize for who I am; the part where I trust that the lady I met on Saturday night is, as I suspect, able to see sincerity where others would see cliche.
I am fortunate enough to have been able to collect a number of special memories. They are memories of moments that made any struggle leading up to them worthwhile. They are memories of moments when I am struck by something so beautiful, time stands still and all of the ugliness in the world ceases to exist.
Your smile is the freshest of my special memories.
Regardless of whether we see each other again, I will use it as I do my other special memories. I will call on it when I am disheartened or low. I will hold it in my heart when I need inspiration. I will keep it with me for moments when I need to find a smile of my own.
I am unsure of all my motives for sharing this with you and, if I am honest, not ready to examine them too closely. However, I know that it makes me feel good to believe that maybe, if you are ever upset, knowing that I will be keeping your smile alive might help you through.
If you are half as intelligent and aware as I believe you to be, I am sure that you will find what I have written, in the very least, sweet.
If I am twice as lucky as I would dare to hope, you will find this note charming and agree to contact me and arrange a date. Either way, I trust that your reply will be candid - you told me how much you value honesty.
One last thing, I promise that it is enormously rare for me to stray as far from sobriety as I managed on Saturday night.
Be safe.
Joe
I have a great deal of sympathy for Joe. I once read a romantic, very flattering poem (that I had spent weeks writing) down the phone to a girlfriend..only to hear her flatmates stifled squawks of laughter in the background. Women can be so cruel. Thank God there was no internet in 1980
Complain about this postThe programme said this email is on the website, but I can't find it. What am I doing wrong?
Complain about this postThere were so many incongruences in this story I had to wonder whther we were being had.
I have to confess to being doubled up with laughter at the solemn tone of the whole segment. I had an image of Wile E Coyote standing there smoke blackened and blinking with a detonator handle clutched in his paws.
I recall doing something similar when I was 15 and having it passed around the class to similar derision. The content of this story is identical differing only in scale, the sole hook on which this story hangs is the fact that it's circulated faster and wider than can be achieved with pen and paper alone.
So, the very factors which have driven the communications explosion and have been endlessly highlighted in the media for the last 10 years, (speed, ease and reach) are very the one's which apparently bamboozle your interviewee?!?!?!?
A story about the uncontrolled transmission private communicationss... broadcast on national radio?
A romantic heartfelt missive.... sent by email?
The list goes on, but suffice to say it was certainly entertaining, although not perhaps in the way that was intended
Regards
Nux
Complain about this postOh Joe! Well, at least Nux's derision was articulate!
email may not be the most traditionally Romantic form of communication but we use what we have!
What I admire most isn't the careful poetry of your message but that you took the risk. More please!
Complain about this postplease mr Dobbie, never give up on your quite delightful view on life and love, a desire to truly meet a kindred spirit must never wain. As the gentleman who spoke minutes later, life can indeed come uo roses.
Complain about this postI applaud Joe for being so honest and romantic about his feelings.
Will you be putting on the web site,the poem about Joe's e-mail performed by Matt at the end of the programme? Please do, as it encapsulated alot of the feelings I have for someone and would like to re read it and maybe send it to him.
Complain about this postThanks
... what a refreshing take on boy meets girl. She is lucky to have met a man who clearly has nothing but good intentions.
Phil
Complain about this postIt is heartening to see that Fi's listeners have, for the most part, written encouraging comments. I wasn't clear why Joe was so emphatic that this wasn't a love letter. OK, he'd only just met xx, but the effect on his equilibrium was clear. I thought he expressed brilliantly the nerve-wracking uncertainty at what to say and the terror at the moment of posting a declaration of interest in someone.
Faint heart never won fair maiden, I seem to recall.
Complain about this postI think that Joe's email is charming and it warmed the cockles of my little heart. If I got an email like that from someone I was interested in, I would certainly meet him for coffee, though I'm not sure how I'd react if I wasn't interested.
Joe comes over as sensitive [always a good quality in a chap] and thoughful - and bold!
He took a big risk in sending it, and it seems to have given him some sort of result though I'm sure it's not one he could have envisaged....
Yep - boldness has some genius, power and magic in it, though we can ALL misread situations especially when swept off our feet. I've been in this situation myself recently and am still trying to recover my own sense of self and equilibrium... and I'll probably do it again one day.
Complain about this postThat poem, nice try but way toooooo self indulgent, it reeked of a coiled defensiveness "if you are as half as intelligent " he is telling her how to feel........rule number one with seduction never tell a woman how she feels or how she should feel......eunuchs are made that way! If you are going to seduce her then do it over the coffee, not in an email! Never mind.......oh and that bit about keeping her smile alive? bit creepy joe, its not passion......not as we know it....
Complain about this postI felt really sorry for Joe when I heard his story last Saturday.......I greatly admire his courage for writing such a lovely email to the lady of interest.
Complain about this postHowever I can't help thinking, that if he
just wrote a short email and arranged to meet for a casual culltured chat over coffee in the Tate Modern........he might have got his date, afterall!