E-mail question

 Is there a way I can safely open e-mail, sent from someone I don’t know?  Is viewing the message using the Preview Pane option, considered safe or is that just letting the PC open my mail for me?  I send out reminders about our club meeting dates, meeting notes and useful information about our club activities, to club members.  I don’t want to miss any legit request about joining our club, from people I don’t know, so how can I safely view the e-mail message?  With the e-mail account I am using, I don’t think I can save the message to my desktop and then scan it with Norton.  I know better than to open an attachment, from unknown users, so I think I am safe there.