Tinkerer

-Subject: One of the Best E-mails I've seen

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
pecial 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 class mates 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 it 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, you reap what you sow, what you put into
the lives of others comes back into your own.

May your day be as special as you are!