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."
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.
