黄色回形针

Georgia, a friend of my wife, was recently

divorced and trying to raise her two sons when the Gulf War broke out. She heard about soldiers in the service who had no family and needed pen pals[笔友]. Letters

addressed to “Any Soldier” were distributed[分发] by commanding officers who noticed any soldiers getting

little or no mail. Georgia wrote to 25 such soldiers

almost daily, most of them men.

Keeping up with 25 pen pals on a daily basis

almost consumed Georgia’s time and talents. She sent poems, little stories, and words of hope and encouragement. When there were time constraints[限制], she would write one letter and copy it for everyone. Greetings were sent whenever she knew about a special event, like a birthday.

One day, Georgia received a letter from a soldier

who was depressed and discouraged. She

pondered[沉思] as to how she could help lift his spirits. It was then that she noticed that at work there were paper clips of various colors. Georgia took one of the yellow paper clips and photo copied it in the palm of her hand. She sent this picture with the paper clip with the following message: “This yellow paper clip that you see in my hand represents a hug that I am sending to you. You can carry this paper clip in a pocket or anywhere, and whenever you feel down, you can just touch and hold it and know that somebody cares about you, and would give you a hug if she were there.” Georgia sent a copy of this picture along with a paper clip and the message to each of her other correspondents[通信者].

After the war ended, Georgia received one of the pictures of her hand holding the yellow paper clip, and on the back were over 150 signatures of people that had been given her “hug.”

During the years, Georgia named other

paper clips. Pink came to mean a kiss, green was for good luck, and so on.

Years later, Georgia was giving a class as part of a seminar[座谈会] for positive thinking. She shared with the members of the class her paper clip symbolism, and made a bracelet[手镯] of multi-colored paper clips for each of them. One of the women exclaimed[惊叫], “So you’re the one!” The class member told Georgia that she was visiting her

brother and needed something to hold papers together. She had noticed a yellow

paper clip on the refrigerator held there with a magnet.

She borrowed the paper clip for her papers. When the brother saw it, he grabbed it and scolded[责骂] her, and told her never to touch the yellow paper clip again. Now she knew why.

No one will ever know how far her message has spread, nor how many lives have been touched by a simple yellow paper clip.

我妻子的朋友乔治娅最近离了婚，适逢海湾战争爆发，她试着独力抚养两个儿子。她听说有些服役士兵由于没有家人通信所以需要笔友。收件人为“任何士兵”的信将通过军士指挥官分发到那些没有信件或是很少收到来信的士兵手里。于是乔治娅几乎每天都给25个这样的士兵写信，而他们大多是男的。

每天坚持跟25个笔友通信几乎把乔治娅的时间和精力消耗殆尽。她寄出去的有诗歌、小故事，也有表达希望与鼓励的话语。时间不够的话，她就只写一封信，然后把它复印给每个人。每逢生日那样的特殊日子，她都会寄出自己的问候。

有一天，乔治娅收到一个士兵的来信，信中满是消沉和懈怠。她寻思着怎样才能帮助这个士兵振作精神。这时她注意到上班的地方有些五颜六色的回形针。乔治娅拿起其中一枚黄色回形针，放到手掌心里一起复印出来。她把这张图和回形针一同寄出去，并写道：“你看到的放在我手里这枚黄色回形针，代表我寄给你的一个拥抱。你可以把这枚回形针带在身上，放在口袋里或任何地方，情绪低落时把它握在手心，你就知道有人在关心你。如果在你身边，她就会给你一个拥抱。”乔治娅把这张图复印了，加上回形针还有这段话一起寄给所有跟她通信的人。

战争结束后，乔治娅收到一封信，里面正是那张她手心握着一枚黄色回形针的图片。图片背面有一百五十多个签名，这些人都曾得到她的“拥抱”。

那些年来，乔治娅还赋予其它回形针不同的含义。粉色代表一个吻，绿色代表好运气等等。

多年以后，在一个座谈会上，乔治娅在给大家讲述“积极思考”这个主题时，与研讨会成员讲起她的回形针的象征义，并给每个人做了一条用五颜六色的回形针串起来的手链。有位女士失声叫道：“原来你就是她啊！”这位女士告诉乔治娅，有一次她去她哥哥家，需要找个东西把几张纸别在一起。她看到冰箱上有一枚被磁铁吸在表面的黄色回形针，就把回形针取下来借用。她哥哥看见后一把抢了回来，还大声责骂她，叫她以后不准再动这枚回形针。现在她才知道个中原因。

没有人知道她信中的话流传到多远，也不知道有多少生命曾为这枚小小的黄色回形针所感动。