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May 12, 2008 12:26 PM PDT

I am not soothed by online forgiveness ritual

by Rafe Needleman

A timely pitch just came my way from The Campaign for Love and Forgiveness, a program by the Fetzer Institute that promises a non-religious, non-political ritual for letting go of the hurt someone has inflicted upon you (or you on someone else).

All better now.

It was timely because some product guy just Twittered me a pitch and said he'd follow up by sending the details to my TechCrunch account. Nothing makes my blood boil more than getting my site confused with that other blog.

OK, time to breathe, forgive, and let go, right? With this site, as you work through the process, you put your anger into words, then click on the words in your statement, turning each word into a lovely purple lotus blossom that fades out, amid a soothing musical accompaniment--until the word pops back up again elsewhere on the screen, just slightly smaller and less intense. It's like Whack-a-Mole on Prozac. You click the words again, until each finally shrinks and vanishes, taking--in theory--your anger and frustration with it.

Well, it can't hurt. Honestly, I wouldn't normally cover something like this, but I only have a few minutes left before a big meeting with Nokia, and I wanted to get a post in. Try this if you're looking for a way to take a tiny bit of the edge off your anger.

Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe.
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