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I wasn’t paying attention at the time to the good ex－ample my father set. He wasn’t consciously “setting a good example”—he was just living life according to his values.
It was the 1950s in a small Middle Georgia farm town. Our family owned a clothing store in the middle of the main business block downtown. Six days a week, 8 am until 6 pm (9 pm on Saturday), my father presided1 over his business. And sometimes an angel would come to our store.
I didn’t recognize those visitors as angels. Neither did my mother, who accepted my father’s decisions but referred to Daddy’s angels as “bums”. She was concerned that they painted hobo marks to guide others to my father. My father was, and still is, an extremely kind man. He bought them lunch.
I guess Daddy knew Mama’s opinion and took precautions2 in case any individual “angel” might ac－tually be an alcoholic. He would have a friendly, en－couraging conversation with the person, who was shab－by and obviously down on his luck.
Then Daddy would walk him across the street to the Coffee Cup Cafe and pay for him to eat the daily special, a hearty meal. Depending on how the conver－sation was going, Daddy would sometimes sit and have lunch with him.
Another variation on this theme was that some－times Daddy would bring the man to our house to do yard work to earn a bus ticket. Mama would feed him a good home cooked meal but would serve it to him in the kitchen or on the back steps.
Daddy explained his theory of angels to his chil－dren this way: “It’s a test. Sometimes God sends an angel among men unawares, to test us. How we behave toward the least man is how we treat Him.”
I remembered chuckling3 at my “naive4” father’s ac－tions later when I got more grown and more savvy5. I laughed that he got it backwards about who the angel was.
Now that I am middle-aged, I’m proud to say that I realize how blessed I am to have such a wise and good man as my father.
I was also doubly blessed that he was both my fa－ther and my teacher. His influence made me learn to treat others with kindness and generosity6. And now, I am meeting angels by myself. More than once I have recognized the influence of kindness on a person from the face of a homeless mentally ill person. And this in－fluence didn’t exist only in the person who was given kindness, but also in the person who was giving out it.
那时候，我对父亲树立的那个好榜样没有注意。他不是有意识地去“树立一个好榜样”的——他只是按照他自己的价值观去生活。
那是在20世纪50年代佐治亚州中部的一个农业小镇。我们家在市区的主要商业街拥有一个服装店。一个星期中有六天父亲要从早上8点到下午6点（星期六到9点）管理他的生意。有时候，一位天使会来我们店。
我可不把那些客人当做天使。我母亲也不，她虽然接受我父亲的决定，但却把爸爸的天使称为“游民”。她担心他们这些打着“游民”烙印的流浪汉会给我父亲引来更多的游民。我父亲过去一直是、现在也仍然是一个心肠极好的男人。他为他们购买午餐。
我想爸爸知道妈妈的想法，并且也谨慎地为万一哪个“天使”可能会是酒鬼的情况做好了准备。他会和那个衣衫褴褛、并且明显运气不好的“天使”进行一次友好的、鼓舞人心的谈话。
然后，爸爸会陪他走到街对面的咖啡馆，为他买一些当天的特色菜，让他美美地饱餐一顿。根据谈话进行的情况，爸爸有时候会坐下来和他一起就餐。
这种情况的另一种变通办法有时候是爸爸会带那个人回家来，让他做一些整理庭院的活儿，挣一张公共汽车票钱。妈妈会为他做一顿家常便饭，但只会让他在厨房里或者在后面的台阶上吃。
爸爸是这样对孩子们解释他的天使理论的：“这是一种考验。有时候，上帝会派一位天使出其不意地混杂在人群中，考验我们。我们怎么对待那个最微不足道的人，我们就是在怎么对待他。”
我记得后来当我逐渐长大，逐渐有了自己的思想后，我对“天真”父亲的这种行为，曾经哧哧地笑过。我笑他把谁是天使弄反了。
现在，我已经人到中年了，可以骄傲地说，我已经认识到我有这样一位既贤明又善良的父亲是多么幸运。
而使我感到倍加幸运的是，他既是我的父亲，也是我的老师。在他的熏陶下，我耳濡目染，也学会了宽厚待人。现在，我自己也开始招待天使了。从那些无家可归的、心智不健全的人的脸上，我不止一次地看到仁爱对于一个人的影响。这种影响不仅发生在被施仁爱的人身上，也发生在施仁爱的人身上。
紫藤花 摘译自Parents
It was the 1950s in a small Middle Georgia farm town. Our family owned a clothing store in the middle of the main business block downtown. Six days a week, 8 am until 6 pm (9 pm on Saturday), my father presided1 over his business. And sometimes an angel would come to our store.
I didn’t recognize those visitors as angels. Neither did my mother, who accepted my father’s decisions but referred to Daddy’s angels as “bums”. She was concerned that they painted hobo marks to guide others to my father. My father was, and still is, an extremely kind man. He bought them lunch.
I guess Daddy knew Mama’s opinion and took precautions2 in case any individual “angel” might ac－tually be an alcoholic. He would have a friendly, en－couraging conversation with the person, who was shab－by and obviously down on his luck.
Then Daddy would walk him across the street to the Coffee Cup Cafe and pay for him to eat the daily special, a hearty meal. Depending on how the conver－sation was going, Daddy would sometimes sit and have lunch with him.
Another variation on this theme was that some－times Daddy would bring the man to our house to do yard work to earn a bus ticket. Mama would feed him a good home cooked meal but would serve it to him in the kitchen or on the back steps.
Daddy explained his theory of angels to his chil－dren this way: “It’s a test. Sometimes God sends an angel among men unawares, to test us. How we behave toward the least man is how we treat Him.”
I remembered chuckling3 at my “naive4” father’s ac－tions later when I got more grown and more savvy5. I laughed that he got it backwards about who the angel was.
Now that I am middle-aged, I’m proud to say that I realize how blessed I am to have such a wise and good man as my father.
I was also doubly blessed that he was both my fa－ther and my teacher. His influence made me learn to treat others with kindness and generosity6. And now, I am meeting angels by myself. More than once I have recognized the influence of kindness on a person from the face of a homeless mentally ill person. And this in－fluence didn’t exist only in the person who was given kindness, but also in the person who was giving out it.
那时候，我对父亲树立的那个好榜样没有注意。他不是有意识地去“树立一个好榜样”的——他只是按照他自己的价值观去生活。
那是在20世纪50年代佐治亚州中部的一个农业小镇。我们家在市区的主要商业街拥有一个服装店。一个星期中有六天父亲要从早上8点到下午6点（星期六到9点）管理他的生意。有时候，一位天使会来我们店。
我可不把那些客人当做天使。我母亲也不，她虽然接受我父亲的决定，但却把爸爸的天使称为“游民”。她担心他们这些打着“游民”烙印的流浪汉会给我父亲引来更多的游民。我父亲过去一直是、现在也仍然是一个心肠极好的男人。他为他们购买午餐。
我想爸爸知道妈妈的想法，并且也谨慎地为万一哪个“天使”可能会是酒鬼的情况做好了准备。他会和那个衣衫褴褛、并且明显运气不好的“天使”进行一次友好的、鼓舞人心的谈话。
然后，爸爸会陪他走到街对面的咖啡馆，为他买一些当天的特色菜，让他美美地饱餐一顿。根据谈话进行的情况，爸爸有时候会坐下来和他一起就餐。
这种情况的另一种变通办法有时候是爸爸会带那个人回家来，让他做一些整理庭院的活儿，挣一张公共汽车票钱。妈妈会为他做一顿家常便饭，但只会让他在厨房里或者在后面的台阶上吃。
爸爸是这样对孩子们解释他的天使理论的：“这是一种考验。有时候，上帝会派一位天使出其不意地混杂在人群中，考验我们。我们怎么对待那个最微不足道的人，我们就是在怎么对待他。”
我记得后来当我逐渐长大，逐渐有了自己的思想后，我对“天真”父亲的这种行为，曾经哧哧地笑过。我笑他把谁是天使弄反了。
现在，我已经人到中年了，可以骄傲地说，我已经认识到我有这样一位既贤明又善良的父亲是多么幸运。
而使我感到倍加幸运的是，他既是我的父亲，也是我的老师。在他的熏陶下，我耳濡目染，也学会了宽厚待人。现在，我自己也开始招待天使了。从那些无家可归的、心智不健全的人的脸上，我不止一次地看到仁爱对于一个人的影响。这种影响不仅发生在被施仁爱的人身上，也发生在施仁爱的人身上。
紫藤花 摘译自Parents