The Paper Clip...

[Guest guest]

" The Paper Clip " ...

Georgia, a friend of my wife's, 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.

Letters addressed to " Any Soldier " were distributed 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, 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 that was depressed

and discouraged. She pondered 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. 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 for positive thinking. She shared

with the members of the class her paper clip symbolism, and made a

bracelet of multicolored paper clips for each of them. One of the

women exclaimed, " 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 her, and told her

never to touch the yellow paper clip again. Now she knew why.

No one will never know how far her message has spread, nor how many

lives have been touched by a simple yellow paper clip

Kind deeds have legs – they have a will of their own, You never know

how far an act of kindness can go. It can stimulate others and

literally change history. So let's start changing a bit of history,

one act at a time.

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