Write about someone who has made a big difference in your life.

After reading his soaring poetry, you are encouraged by the great American poet Walt Whitman to write a ”song” of yourself to celebrate all that is special about you, about your life and the things that make you special. What are some of the lines in your song or poet of yourself?

A SHOCKING TRUE REPORT FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL March 22, 2014: ”Kabul, Afghanistan: The four men sat down for dinner, ordered juice and then excused themselves to the bathroom. There, they extracted tiny pistols from the soles of their shoes, and, after returning to the restaurant of Kabul’s most luxurious hotel, started shooting patrons point-blank.” Soon after, nine guests and the four attackers were dead and several injured.

Later, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and also in recent days carried out a series of assaults aimed at disrupting the presidential elections in April.

Imagine you are trying to enter the minds of these killers. What is going on in their heads — what are they thinking or believing? Why do they do what they do? How can they live with themselves when they take other people’s lives?

You are free to write whatever you wish. We’re just trying to understand how some people can do such terrible things. What do you think? Share with us.

Each night a man carries a bag of dreams on his back and stops at homes throughout the world, leaving dreams for the sleepers. What are some of the dreams that are in his bag? Why does he do what he does?

In his short story, ”The Relive Box,” author T. Coraghessan Boyle writes about a machine that allows people to relive past moments in their lives that they want to return to, such as a time when they fell in love with someone or when they were very young and wanted to be with their parents. If you had such a relive box in your home, what moments would you like to return to?

You invent a new ”interactive” T-shirt to wear that can become your personal electronic billboard. The shirt can be programmed to flash your personal message to the world. The message can change whenever you wish to reflect your different moods and feelings. On a typical day, as you do different things and visit different places, what are some of the messages your shirt would convey?