6.06.2008

To Busy For a Fren

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.

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