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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 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."
"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.
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