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 Viet Nam 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 their 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
pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and 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.
Author Unknown
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