Making his rounds, the night watchman stops in the back room of an office where papers are waiting to be shredded. Two bins are filled with old ledger books and documents. Instinctively, he looks at them before shredding them, and gasps at what they reveal. He realizes he cannot destroy them because of the secrets they reveal. This is what he discovers.

A high school English teacher encourages his students to write their most creative, their deepest thoughts on the walls of his classroom. The students cover the walls with original art, quotes from favorite books, and the things that are in their hearts. Many of the students look to these walls for inspiration in their own lives. The wall, filled with student writings, tells young people that their ideas and thoughts have value and are worth sharing with others.

If you were allowed to, what important words would you like to write on the walls of your own classroom?

A high school English teacher encourages his students to write their most creative, their deepest thoughts on the walls of his classroom. The students cover the walls with original art, quotes from favorite books, and the things that are in their hearts. Many of the students look to these walls for inspiration in their own lives. The wall filled with student writings tells young people that their ideas and thoughts have value and are worth sharing with others.
If you were allowed to, what would you have wanted to write on the walls of your own classroom when you were a student? Or, what would you like to write now?

That question was the subject of a writing contest. In talking about this contest, Stephen Hawking, the physicist, said, ‘’It assumes that an intelligent extraterrestrial life form has already made contact with us and we need to formulate a reply. The competition asks school-age students to think creatively and scientifically in order to find a way to explain human life on this planet to some inquisitive aliens. I have no doubt that if we are ever contacted by such beings, we would want to respond. I also think it is an interesting question to pose to young people as it requires them to think about the human race and our planet as a whole. It asks students to define who we are and what we have done,’’ said Dr. Hawking.

Now, if you were writing such a message to an alien, what would you say?

Make believe that you could write a song that captures a happy moment in your life. How would your first stanza go?

I once read about an athlete who had been temporarily paralyzed from the neck down while playing football. While he was in the hospital, his family and friends formed what he called a ”feeling of assurance” around him to communicate their love and hope for his recovery. He has since made great progress and is walking again, even although doctors initially only had given him a 3 percent chance of doing so.
This made me think about what it would be like if each of us also knew we were surrounded by a ”feeling of assurance” and support from those around us. Wouldn’t that give us extra strength in dealing with all of life’s problems and hurts? Wouldn’t that strengthen us? How much different would our lives be with such good feelings directed at us? But, to receive such love, wouldn’t we also need to be able to offer such assurance to others, too, and without any reservation?
WHAT ABOUT YOU? Have you ever felt such a ”feeling of assurance”? What was it like? How did it affect you?