"Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die."
Malachy McCourt

I sent this quote to some friends of mine via text message, simply because I liked it and wanted to share it. I expected to get some response in the form "hey - that's a cool quote!" but instead, I got these:

- One friend responded by calling me asking if I was okay, did I need help, was I planning suicide(?!?!)
- Two asked why I was mad at him/her(?)
- Another asked why I was bringing up the past and still holding a grudge against an ex-boss.

This moment taught me about intentions. My intention was simple: just sharing an interesting quote - nothing more. In the medium of text message though there were wild misinterpretation about intention of sending the quote.

How do avoid this? Especially in age that values one-line responses (sound bites) to complex problems -- can we effectively communicate intention without it getting lost in the text message? ops: