Teachers

It's pouring where I live and I keep thinking of a poem I learned in third grade;

"The rain, they say, is a mouse-gray horse

That is shod with a silver shoe.

The sound of his hoofs can be heard on the roofs

As he gallops the whole night through."

(I think the poem was written by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The amazing thing is that I still remember something I learned nearly 50 years ago, and that's only one of hundreds of memories from grade school. The teacher who taught us the rain poem was an excellent one, as were several others I had. Some of my teachers were just okay, most were pretty good, and one was terrible, but all of them influenced my life in ways that have lasted.

Teachers often make a difference that continues as long as their students live and, as a result, those students go on to influence other people, who influence still others in turn. And the teachers never know what a difference they have made.

But teachers aren't the only ones. All of us are changing the future in small ways that may eventually cause big changes. Even a passing comment to someone we see in the checkout line at a grocery store can lead to things we'll never be aware of.

None of us know when something we do or say will be used to help change the world.