給陌生人的信

by Huma Qureshi

When 24-year-old Hannah Brencher moved to New York after college， she was hit by depression and overwhelming loneliness. One day she felt so alone， she wanted to reach out to someone. And so she put pen to paper and started writing letters. Letters to complete strangers.

But these werent sad letters about how she was feeling. They were happy letters， all about the other person， not her. She would write messages for people to have a “bright day” and tell strangers how brilliant they were， even if they thought no one else had noticed. Brencher began dropping the notes all over New York， in cafes， in library books， in parks and on the subway. It made her feel better， knowing that she might be making somebodys day through just a few short， sweet words. It gave her something to focus on. And so， The World Needs More Love Letters was born.

The World Needs More Love Letters is all about writing letters—not emails， but proper， handwritten letters. Not 1）conventional love letters， written to a real beloved， but surprise letters for strangers. They dont necessarily say “I love you”， but they are full of kindness—telling people they are remarkable and special and 2）allround amazing.

Brenchers 3）initiative has now exploded. She has personally written hundreds， if not thousands of letters. Last year， she did a 4）TED talk. In it， she talks about a woman whose husband， a soldier， comes back from Afghanistan and they struggle to reconnect—“So she tucks love letters throughout the house as a way to say： ‘Come back to me. Find me when you can”—and a university student who slips letters around her campus， only to suddenly find everyone is writing them and there are love letters hanging from the trees.

Now there are more than 10，000 people joining in all over the world. Sometimes， they write letters to order， to people who are lonely and down and just want someone to tell them that everything will be OK. Mostly， though， they scribble notes and leave them somewhere unlikely， for somebody to find.

Its a very cute idea. So I decide to give it a try and see if I might do the same for someone else.

By the time I sit down to write my letters， I feel stupidly self-conscious and also， I dont want to make a spelling mistake， cross it out and ruin the whole thing. I browse Brenchers website for inspiration. But everything I start to say sounds， well…cheesy. And stupid. “Hey！ You！ Yes， you！” Nope.

I try again， and this time bumble my way through a few 5）platitudes.“In a city like London where people go out of their way not to smile or even catch your eye， I just felt like saying hello.”I end it with a sort of *waves*（though no smiley face） and tell them I hope they had a good day and that even if they had a 6）crappy day， that this random note might have made them feel better.

My next letter is basically the same， except I address it to “the stranger sitting on the tube”. By letter number three， I figure less is more so simply say： “YOU ARE WAY BETTER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.” Which， lets face it， wed all love to hear someone say. I mark the envelope：“Something to cheer you up if youre having a bad day.” I like that one. I think I 7）nailed it.

The next part is the letter-drop： where to leave them？ I slip one in the sofa in the cafe that Im in， poking out 8）conspicuously between the cushions so the next person notices， and drop the other one oh-so-casually on the tube， as if it wasnt me that left it on that seat at all. On my way home I notice a nice-looking bike with a basket， so I drop the last note in there.

Its kind of exciting， oddly 9）exhilarating and butterfly-inducing， leaving these notes behind and wondering if the person who finds one will smile or screw it straight up. Id like to think that they would appreciate the gesture， although I can equally understand why they might think I am a 10）lunatic. But I guess， as Brenchers experiment shows， its really not that much weirder to take the time to write a random letter for someone with the aim of making their day that wee bit brighter than it is to， say， Tweet a whole bunch of people youll never meet or never really know.

When I get home， I realise Ive got one card and one envelope left. So I scrawl a lil something for my husband and leave it under his pillow. Way better than sending a text.

當24歲的漢娜·布蘭切爾大學畢業(yè)搬到紐約后，沮喪孤獨的情緒鋪天蓋地向她襲來。有一天，她覺得孤獨得厲害，希望向他人傾訴心聲。于是，她拿出紙筆，寫起信來。寫給徹頭徹尾的陌生人的信。

但她寫的并非描述個人感受的傷感信。她寫的都是些令人快樂的信，信上寫的全都是其他人，與她自己無關。她想向別人寫一些信息，讓他們過上“歡快的一天”，她想告訴那些陌生人，盡管他們認為沒人在意，但他們確實很有才。布蘭切爾開始在紐約的不同角落放下這些信箋，包括咖啡館、圖書館的書中、公園以及地鐵上。這么做讓她心情好起來了，因為她知道僅僅通過一小段簡短貼心的話，她就可能讓某個人快樂起來。這讓她的生活有了一個重心。于是，“世界需要更多情書”網(wǎng)站就這么誕生了。

“世界需要更多情書”全都與寫信有關——不是電郵，而是實實在在的手寫信。不是傳統(tǒng)意義上寫給傾慕之人的情書，而是寫給陌生人的意外信件。信中不一定說到 “我愛你”，但卻滿是友善的字句——告訴人們，他們非凡脫俗、與眾不同、多才多藝。

如今，布蘭切爾的初衷已經(jīng)得以擴散。她自己曾寫過的信，就算沒有幾千封，也有好幾百封了。去年，她在TED大會上做了一次演講。演講中，她提到一名女子的故事。這名女子的丈夫是一名士兵，剛從阿富汗歸來，兩人正苦于不知如何重新與對方交流——“所以她就把情書塞到屋子的各個角落，以這種方式，向?qū)Ψ秸f‘回到我身邊吧。你準備好了，就來找我吧。”——還有一個女孩的故事。她愛把情書塞在大學校園的各個角落，有一天，她突然發(fā)現(xiàn)所有人都在寫著這樣的情書，甚至連樹上也掛滿了情書。

現(xiàn)在，全世界已有超過一萬人加入到這個活動中。有時候，他們會應要求而寫信，寫給那些孤獨、情緒低落的人，寫給那些希望有人能告訴他們一切都會好起來的人。不過，多數(shù)情況下，他們寫下便箋，放在某處不顯眼的角落，讓別人去發(fā)現(xiàn)。

這是個很有意思的想法。于是，我決定嘗試一下，看看自己這么做能否在別人身上達到一樣的效果。

等我坐下來寫信的時候，我覺得自己很傻，很不自在，同時我也不想拼錯一個單詞，把它劃掉，然后壞了整件好事兒。我瀏覽布蘭切爾的網(wǎng)站尋找靈感。但我剛開始寫出來的東西聽起來都，嗯……差勁兒。還很傻?！昂?，你！對，就是你！”不行。

我重新再寫，這一次，我拙劣地寫下一些陳詞濫調(diào)：“在倫敦這樣一個城市，人們不愛笑，甚至不與你進行眼神接觸，我只是想說聲你好?！蔽以诰渥雍竺婕恿诵┎ɡ朔枺ú贿^沒有加上笑臉圖案），并且告訴他們，我希望他們擁有愉快的一天，而且就算他們這一天過得很糟，這張無意中發(fā)現(xiàn)的便箋或許會讓他們感覺愉快一些。

我的第二封信基本上如出一轍，只是在上面多寫了“致地鐵上的陌生人”。寫第三封信的時候，我覺得“少即是多”，所以只是簡單地寫上“你比你自己所想的要好很多。”這句話，老實說，我們所有人都喜歡別人這么說。我在信封上加了一句：“如果你今天過得很糟，這些會讓你高興起來?！蔽蚁矚g這句，我想我干得太漂亮了。

下一步是投放信箋：這些信放在哪兒好呢？我把其中一封插在我身處的咖啡館的沙發(fā)上，明顯地突出于靠墊之間，以便下一位顧客能看得到。另外一封我無比隨意地放在地鐵上，就好像完全不是我落下的一般。在我回家的路上，我看到一輛帶車籃的漂亮自行車，于是我把最后一封信放進車籃子里。

把這些便箋放下，我猜想著發(fā)現(xiàn)信件的人是會微笑還是會直接把信撕掉，這種感覺很刺激，出奇地令人既雀躍又緊張。我傾向于認為他們會對這種做法表示感激，雖然我同樣理解他們或許會認為我是個瘋子。但我想，正如布蘭切爾的實驗證明的那樣，比起向一幫你永遠不會碰面或認識的人發(fā)微博，花些時間隨心為陌生人寫些信，為他們的生活增添一丁點兒歡樂，這種做法真的不算太古怪。

當我回到家的時候，我發(fā)現(xiàn)自己還剩下一張卡片和一個信封。于是，我給丈夫胡亂寫下片言碎語，并將信箋放到他的枕頭底下。這樣做，比發(fā)短信好多了。