“You know how it is when you’re driving behind a car and you notice the bumper sticker, and you think to yourself ‘Oh, it’s that kind of person’ or, ‘Why would somebody put that on their car?’” Walter Goettlich, a sociology graduate student at the University of Kansas.

　　“你知道那是怎样的感觉吗——当你开车时跟在一辆车后面，你留意到它的保险杠贴纸，你对自己说，’哦，那就是那种人’，或者’为什么有人把它放在车上呢?”堪萨斯大学社会学研究生Walter Goettlich说。

　　“I was coming back from a vacation with my family…and I was behind a car and the bumper sticker on the car was almost illegible, the type was really tiny and it said, ‘When this baby hits 88 miles an hour, you’re going to see some serious s**t.’”

　　“我和家人度假回来，我前面那辆车的保险杠贴纸几乎难以辨认，非常微小，它是那样写的：‘当这辆车的时速达到每88英里,你会看到奇迹的发生。’”

　　This was Goettlich’s AHA! moment. As you may guessed, the bumper sticker was a reference to the movie Back to the Future. It’s moments like this, on the highway, driving at speed, that can seem so solitary, but in fact there are opportunities to connect—and with perfect strangers.

　　这是Goettlich非常惊喜的时刻。你可能已经猜到，这个贴纸指的是电影《回到未来》，它的那一瞬间和这类似，在高速公路上，开的非常快，看起来如此孤单，但事实上还是有机会联系的——与完美的陌生人。

　　“That’s’ what I’m trying to get at…the way that we think about the world, based on how we read what other people put on their cars.”

　　“这就是我试着去证实的......我们如何看待世界，可以从我们看到的、其他人车上的贴纸上展现出来。”

　　To sample the kinds of messages being sent on our roads, Goettlich drove more than 10,000 miles on interstate highways throughout the eastern United States. He says one major variety of bumper sticker refers to things nearly everyone knows about—an election, a church, a social issue. But other bumper stickers may require an observer to access what Goettlich calls “outside resources.” For example, the bumper sticker that says, “The Dude Abides” might drive some people to do a quick Google search. But a few viewers may feel an instant bond, being fans of the movie The Big Lebowski.

　　为了对道路上发送的信息进行采样，Goettlich在美国东部的州际高速公路上行驶了超过10,000英里。 他说，保险杠贴纸主要的一类就是它上面的那些事——选举、教会、社会问题等是几乎每个人都知道的。但还有一些保险杠贴纸可能需要观察员访问Goettlich所谓的“外部资源”。例如，“The Dude Abides”( 注：电影《The Big Lebowski》中的人物名)这个保险杠标签可能会让一些人快速去Google搜索，但是，如果是电影《The Big Lebowski》的粉丝，他就能迅速的联想起来。

　　“So, the kinds of stickers I tend to like are the ones that don’t make sense to me, because what they do is they challenge my preconceived notions of the world.”

　　“因此，我更喜欢那些对我来说没有意义的贴纸，因为他们所做的就是挑战我先入为主的世界观。”

　　Another type of care sticker is a response to other stickers. For example, you know those window stickers of stick families? Some even include a stick dog or a stick cat? “And then I saw recently another example which was ‘making my family,’ and it was what were clearly male and female stick figures having sex.”

　　另一种类型的贴纸是对其他贴纸的回应。 例如，你知道家庭窗口贴纸吗? 有些甚至包括一只狗或一只猫? “最近我又看到了另一个“创造我的家人”的例子，那很明显是男女正在发生性行为的贴纸。

　　Then there are the ones that say, “My son beat up your honor student.”

　　还有一些贴纸上写着：“我的儿子要打您的学生。”

　　So, when you’re on the road, check the messages sent by other cars around you. You might just connect, in a way you never expected. And without even bending a fender.

　　所以，当你在路上驾驶时，留意你周围其他车辆传递的消息。你可能在以一种你从未想到的方式连接，甚至无需弯曲挡泥板。