Looking [up] a gift horse...

People... we've been down this road together before. 

I totally get the whole 'oh look what I just found in my inbox... I absolutely must share it with everyone in my entire address book right this very second' thing... really I do.  We've all been there.  We open an email and find a stunning gift inside; a beautiful picture... a juicy rumor... a hilarious joke or an eloquently written political op-ed, and we suddenly have the uncontrollable urge to bestow this 'gift' on everyone we know (and quite a few whom we don't).

We'll leave aside, for the moment, the broader issue of those rumors and urban legends that so many of you insist on forwarding without trying to verify first.  You know how I feel about those.  [~glare~]

The big problem (as I've pointed out in previous rants), is that these 'gifts' of pictures, jokes and op-eds you forward so easily with just a click of your mouse, aren't really yours to give. 

Now don't get me wrong... in most cases, I doubt anyone would mind having their work forwarded around the world... so long as proper credit is given, that is.  But still... think about it... those beautiful 'gifts' didn't spring into the world fully formed.  They were created by someone.   And with the miracle of powerful search engines such as Google, it is a rare picture, joke or op-ed that can't be traced to its source within 30 seconds of checking.

So why aren't you checking???

A perfect example of this phenomenon is the following series of stunning images that landed in my email inbox overnight.  They show a bunch of life-size equine sculptures that have been fashioned from driftwood:

The effect is absolutely breathtaking... and they are so realistic in both form and [implied] movement that I kept expecting the horses to pick up their head, glance in my direction and then run away! 

The only thing lacking was a shred of information about the artist!

[~fume~]

I was running late for work, but a I quickly submitted the search terms 'driftwood' and 'horses' to Google... and guess what?  The first hit I got was the artist's website!  How hard was that??? 

I contacted the artist (Heather Jansch) at her studio in England's Westcountry, and she very graciously gave permission to republish the images.  If you would like to see more of her work, please go to her gorgeous site. 

The lesson we learn from this, boys and girls, is that while we may consider the stuff that washes up in our inbox to be exempt from the usual rules of polite society... each of these 'gift horses' was created by someone.... so please take the time to give credit where credit is due.

/rant