Sometimes, events chain out of control. Committees can have that happen. You have a group of ten people. One of them writes a really good statement that settles everyone down and shows how to handle a sticky problem. The outstanding quality of that statement grips everyone and they feel gratitude. One person replies to all but writes to the good statement author, expressing a note of genuine appreciation and admiration. Everyone reads the appreciative note and recognizes the high quality of the really good problem-solving statement. The other eight people become sensitive to possibly looking crude and unappreciative of good thinking and good writing. Each of them also sends a thank-you to the really good author.
One of the last people to express appreciation and admiration also names a few of the previous thankers as notably good gratituders. Uh-oh, some of the earliest writers realize they never expressed thanks for the good thanking that has gone on recently. Some of them write to all members expressing thanks for one or more of the early thank-yous that were especially well-written and warm. It can take quite a while for the waves of appreciation to quiet down.
The phenomenon of chaining thanks to thankers for thanking thankers reminds me of the Lake Wobegon July 4th parade. The drum and bugle corps stopped by the officials' bandstand to play a couple of pieces. While everyone was standing there playing, one member zipped up on the stand and took a picture of the whole corps. When the one member re-took his place, the girl next to him realized it was a good idea. She zipped up on the stand and snapped a great shot of the whole group. You guessed it: one after another, each corpsperson got up on the stand and took their own shot of the corps while everyone held their place. It was only polite.
