The density of people

 

Too Busy for a friend

 

 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.

 

 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?