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 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.
And One Way To Accomplish This 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.
If you've received this, it is because
someone cares for you and it means there
is probably at least someone for whom you
care.
If you're 'too busy' to take those few
minutes right now to forward this message
on, would this be the VERY first time you
didn't do that little thing that would
make a difference in your relationships?
The more people that you send this to, the
better you'll be at reaching out to those
you care about.
Remember, what you put into the lives of
others comes back into your own.
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