Eulogies

I had a history teacher once (could've been psychology or civics, but it's all history now.) On the first day of school he turned to the class and said:

"Imagine you're dead. Your child or grandchild has to stand up in front of all your friends and family and read your eulogy. Now sit down and write that eulogy."

The whole class wrote their individual eulogies and read them aloud during the net few classes. When we were done my teacher said "Now, what have you just learned? " Not many students took it as anything more than a creepy little exercise in creative writing, two were disturbed by it and one absolutely refused to participate in the idea she may actually die one day. He then explained what we did was figure out who we wanted to be. The type of person we hope the world loses by the time all is truly said and done.

This is probably one of the best lessons I've taken with me from high school. I have revised and edited my eulogy several times during the years. Not always on paper, sometimes just in my head. We all do write our eulogies ourselves. We write them with our actions, with our relationships and with our temperaments.

This is what inspired me to write the one act script "What can you say about Mr. Crane?" It's a short little play about an honest man that is attempting to give an honest eulogy for someone that didn't write a very nice one during his life.