YELLOW PAPER CLIPS

Georgia, a friend of my wife, was recently divorced and trying to raiseher two sons when the Gulf War broke out. She heard about soldiers in theservice who had no family and needed pen pals. Letters addressed to "AnySoldier" were distributed by commanding officers who noticed any soldiersgetting little or no mail. Georgia wrote to 25 such soldiers almostdaily, most of them men.

Keeping up with 25 pen pals on a daily basis almost consumed Georgia'stime and talents. She sent poems, little stories, and words of hope andencouragement. When there were time constraints, she would write one letterand copy it for everyone. Greetings were sent whenever she knew about aspecial event, like a birthday.

One day, Georgia received a letter from a soldier that was depressedand 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 ofvarious colors.

Georgia took one of the yellow paper clips and photocopied it in the palm of her hand. She sent this picture with the paperclip with the following message:

"This yellow paper clip that you see inmy hand represents a hug that I am sending to you. You can carry thispaper clip in a pocket or anywhere, and whenever you feel down, you canjust touch and hold it and know that somebody cares about you, and wouldgive 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 othercorrespondents.

After the war ended, Georgia received one of the pictures of her handholding the yellow paper clip, and on the back were over 150 signatures ofpeople that had been given her "hug".

During the years, Georgia named other paper clips. Pink came to mean akiss, green was for good luck, and so on.

Years later, Georgia was giving a class as part of a seminar forpositive thinking. She shared with the members of the class her paper clipsymbolism, and made a bracelet of multi-colored paper clips for each ofthem. One of the women exclaimed "So you're the one!"

The class member told Georgia that she was visiting her brother andneeded something to hold papers together. She had noticed a yellowpaper clip on the refrigerator held there with a magnet. She borrowed thepaper clip for her papers. When the brother saw it, he grabbed it andscolded her, and told her never to touch the yellow paper clip again. Nowshe knew why.

No one will never know how far her message has spread, nor how manylives have been touched by a simple yellow paper clip.