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 or 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 Vickie, another classmate,
reached into her
pocketbook, took out her wallet
and showed her worn
and frazzled list to the group.
"I carry this with
me at all times, " Vickie
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... AND ONE WAY TO
ACCOMPLISH IS: Forward
this message on. If you do
not send it, you will have,
once again passed up the wonderful
opportunity to
do something nice and beautiful.
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Thank you for reading.