Something we should do

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 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 purse and showed her
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.