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It all began with a stop at a red light.
Kevin Salwen, a writer and entrepreneur in Atlanta, was driving his 14-year-old daughter, Hannah, back from a sleepover in 2006. While waiting at a traffic light, they saw a black Mercedes coupe on one side and a homeless man begging for food on the other.
故事開始于一個十字路口，路口亮著紅燈。
凱文·薩文是美國亞特蘭大市的一個作家兼企業家。2006年的一天，他載著自己14歲的女兒漢娜從別的地方回家。在等待信號燈變綠的時候，他們看到馬路上停著一輛黑色奔馳車，而在奔馳車不遠處的馬路另一側，一個無家可歸的流浪漢在乞討食物。
“Dad, if that man had a less nice car, that man there could have a meal,” Hannah protested. The light changed and they drove on, but Hannah was too young to be reasonable. She pestered her parents about inequity, insisting that she wanted to do something.
“老爸，如果那個車主買一輛不那么昂貴的車，那個流浪漢就可以吃一頓飽餐了！”漢娜不滿的說道。紅燈變綠了，他們繼續上路，但小漢娜還是不懂事的纏著父母，她覺得這件事很不公平，并堅持要為那個可憐的人做些什么。
“What do you want to do?” her mom responded. “Sell our house?”
“那你想做什么呢？”她媽媽打趣地問她。“你想要把我們的房子賣了嗎？”
Warning! Never suggest a grand gesture to an idealistic teenager. Hannah seized upon the idea of selling the luxurious family home and donating half the proceeds to charity, while using the other half to buy a more modest replacement home.
（提醒：不要給一個理想主義的孩子這么大方的提議！漢娜就咬定了這個主意，她執意要把家里豪華的別墅賣掉，把賣房所得一半的錢捐給慈善基金會，然后還有一半的錢則用來買一棟相對一般的房子作新家。）
Eventually, that’s what the family did. The project — crazy, impetuous and utterly inspiring — is chronicled in a book by father and daughter scheduled to be published next month: “The Power of Half.” It’s a book that, frankly, I’d be nervous about leaving around where my own teenage kids might find it. An impressionable child reads this, and the next thing you know your whole family is out on the street.
最后，家里拗不過她的軟磨硬泡，真的就把房子給賣了。在下個月即將出版的新書《一半的力量》中，父親和女兒作為作者，將這個瘋狂、沖動但卻相當發人深省的計劃公之于眾。老實說，這本書我可不敢隨便放在我自家孩子觸手可及的地方。孩子都很容易受影響和啟發，如果他們讀了，說不定哪天你們全家就不得不搬到大街上去住了。
