A powerful movie, if you haven’t seen it, is Dead Poets Society from 1989. The late Robin Williams plays John Keating, an English teacher who has an unorthodox way of teaching his students. In one of his lectures, he challenges his students with this line, from Walt Whitman’s poem “O Me! O Life!”: “… the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”

This is a question not just for John Keating’s students, or for Walt Whitman’s readers, but for all of us. We are all part of an eternal human drama. You have the opportunity to contribute a verse to the story. What will your verse be?

Will your verse be excellent or halfhearted?

Will your verse be true to your story or designed to conceal it?

Will your verse be long, as if you had worked on it for many years, or cut short by a lack of effort?

Will your verse be designed to serve people or serve yourself?

And, finally… will you write a verse at all?

We all get to choose what we leave the world. In a hundred years, what will people remember about your verse?

In the powerful play of life, it’s time for you to take the stage and share your verse.