黃色回形針

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[筆友]. Letters

addressed to “Any Soldier” were distributed[分發] 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[座談會] for positive thinking. She shared with the members of the class her paper clip symbolism， and made a bracelet[手鐲] of multi-colored paper clips for each of them. One of the women exclaimed[驚叫]， “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[責罵] 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.

我妻子的朋友喬治婭最近離了婚，適逢海灣戰爭爆發，她試著獨力撫養兩個兒子。她聽說有些服役士兵由于沒有家人通信所以需要筆友。收件人為“任何士兵”的信將通過軍士指揮官分發到那些沒有信件或是很少收到來信的士兵手里。于是喬治婭幾乎每天都給25個這樣的士兵寫信，而他們大多是男的。

每天堅持跟25個筆友通信幾乎把喬治婭的時間和精力消耗殆盡。她寄出去的有詩歌、小故事，也有表達希望與鼓勵的話語。時間不夠的話，她就只寫一封信，然后把它復印給每個人。每逢生日那樣的特殊日子，她都會寄出自己的問候。

有一天，喬治婭收到一個士兵的來信，信中滿是消沉和懈怠。她尋思著怎樣才能幫助這個士兵振作精神。這時她注意到上班的地方有些五顏六色的回形針。喬治婭拿起其中一枚黃色回形針，放到手掌心里一起復印出來。她把這張圖和回形針一同寄出去，并寫道：“你看到的放在我手里這枚黃色回形針，代表我寄給你的一個擁抱。你可以把這枚回形針帶在身上，放在口袋里或任何地方，情緒低落時把它握在手心，你就知道有人在關心你。如果在你身邊，她就會給你一個擁抱。”喬治婭把這張圖復印了，加上回形針還有這段話一起寄給所有跟她通信的人。

戰爭結束后，喬治婭收到一封信，里面正是那張她手心握著一枚黃色回形針的圖片。圖片背面有一百五十多個簽名，這些人都曾得到她的“擁抱”。……