Like most people, I was brought up to look upon life as a process of getting. It was not until in my late thirties that I made this important discovery: giving-away makes life so much more exciting. You need not worry if you lack money. This is how I experimented with giving-away. If an idea for improving the window display of a neighborhood store flashes to me, I step in and make the suggestion to the storekeeper. One discovery I made about giving-away is that it is almost impossible to give away anything in this world without getting something back, though the return often comes in an unexpected form. One Sunday morning the local post office delivered an important special delivery letter to my home, though it was addressed to me at my office. I wrote the postmaster a note of appreciation. More than a year later I needed a post-office box for a new business I was starting. I was told at the window that there were no boxes left, and that my name would have to go on a long waiting list. As I was about to leave, the postmaster appeared in the doorway. He had overheard our conversation. “Wasn’t it you that wrote us that letter a year ago about delivering a special delivery to your home?” I said yes. “Well, you certainly are going to have a box in this post office if we have to make one for you. You don’t know what a letter like that means to us. We usually get nothing but complaints.”

　　參考譯文

　　像大多數(shù)人，我長大看待生命是一個(gè)過程獲得。直到我在30月底，我作出這一重要發(fā)現(xiàn)：給予，距離使我們的生活如此更令人興奮的。您不必?fù)?dān)心如果缺乏資金。這是我嘗試讓-消失。如果一個(gè)主意，可以改善窗口顯示一個(gè)閃爍附近商店給我，我的步驟，并提出上述建議的倉庫保管員。一發(fā)現(xiàn)我付出，離開是，它幾乎是不可能放棄任何在這個(gè)世界上，沒有得到回報(bào)，盡管返回往往在一個(gè)意想不到的形式。一個(gè)星期天上午，當(dāng)?shù)剜]局作了重要特別的遞送信件到我家里，但給我在我的辦公室。我寫了一份說明郵政的贊賞。一年多后，我需要一個(gè)后Office中的一個(gè)新的業(yè)務(wù)，我開始。我被告知的窗口，沒有框的左邊，我的名字將不得不在很長的等候名單。當(dāng)我正準(zhǔn)備離開，郵政出現(xiàn)在門口。他聽到我們的交談。 “是不是你，我們該信中寫道：一年前為客戶提供一份特別的遞送到您的家? ”我說是的。 “嘿，你肯定將會(huì)有一個(gè)盒子在這個(gè)郵政局如果我們要取得一個(gè)適合您。你不知道什么樣的信，這意味著給我們。我們通常會(huì)只是投訴。”