One
day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students
in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.
Then
she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of
their classmates and write it down.
It took
the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the
students left the room, each one handed in the papers.
That
Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate
sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.
On Monday
she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was
smiling. "Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant anything
to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others liked me so much." were most of
the comments.
No one
ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed
them after class with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise
had accomplished its purpose.
The
students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students
moved on. Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam
and his teacher attended the funeral of that special
student.
She
had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome,
so mature. The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who
loved him took a last walk by the coffin.
The teacher
was the last one to bless the coffin.
As she
stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her.
"Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded: "yes."Then he said,
"Mark talked about you a lot".
After
the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon.
Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his
teacher.
"We
want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his
pocket. "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might
recognize it."
Opening
the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that
had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew
without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all
the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.
"Thank
you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark
treasured it." All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around.
Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. It's
in the top drawer of my desk at home."
Chuck's
wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album." "I have mine
too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary." Then Vicki, another classmate,
reached into her purse and showed a frazzled list to the group. "I carry
this with me at all times", Vicki said and without batting an eyelash,
she continued: "I think we all saved our lists."
That's
when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for
all his friends who would never see him again.
......................
The
density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will
end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.
So please,
tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important.
Tell
them, before it is too late...
