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Two
Choices
What would you do?....you make the
choice. Don't look for a punch line, there isn't
one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you
have made the same choice?
At a
fundraising dinner for a school that serves
children with learning disabilities, the father of
one of the students delivered a speech that would
never be forgotten by all who attended. After
extolling the school and its
Dedicated
staff, he offered a question:
'When not
interfered with by outside influences, everything
nature does, is done with perfection.
Yet
my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other
children do. He cannot understand things as other
children do.
Where is the natural order of
things in my son?'
The audience was
stilled by the query.
The father
continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay,
who was mentally and physically disabled comes
into the world, an opportunity to realize true
human nature presents itself, and it comes in the
way other people treat that child.'
Then he
told the following story:
Shay and
I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew
were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think
they'll let me play?' I knew that most of the boys
would not want someone like Shay on their team,
but as a father I also understood that if
my son were allowed to play, it would give him a
much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence
to be accepted by others in spite of his
handicaps.
I approached one of the
boys on the field and asked (not expecting much)
if Shay could play. The boy looked around for
guidance and said, 'We're losing by six runs and
the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can
be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat
in the ninth inning..'
Shay
struggled over to the team's bench and, with a
broad smile, put on a team shirt.. I watched with
a small tear in my eye and warmth in my heart. The
boys saw my joy at my son being
accepted.
In the bottom of the eighth
inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was
still behind by three.
In the top of the
ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in
the right field. Even though no hits came his way,
he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game
and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as I
waved to him from the stands.
In the bottom
of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored
again.
Now, with two outs and the bases
loaded, the potential winning run was on base and
Shay was scheduled to be next at
bat.
At this juncture, do they let
Shay bat and give away their chance to win the
game?
Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat.
Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible
because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat
properly, much less connect with the
ball.
However, as Shay stepped up
to the
Plate, the pitcher, recognizing that
the other team was putting winning aside for this
moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob
the ball in softly so Shay could at least make
contact.
The first pitch came and Shay
swung clumsily and missed.
The pitcher
again took a few steps forward to toss the ball
softly towards Shay.
As the pitch came in,
Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball
right back to the pitcher.
The game
would now be over.
The pitcher picked up
the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the
ball to the first baseman.
Shay would have
been out and that would have been the end of the
game.
Instead, the pitcher threw
the ball right over the first baseman's head, out
of reach of all team mates.
Everyone from
the stands and both teams started yelling, 'Shay,
run to first!
Run to first!'
Never
in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he
made it to first base.
He scampered down
the baseline, wide-eyed and
startled.
Everyone yelled, 'Run to
second, run to second!'
Catching his
breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second,
gleaming and struggling to make it to the
base.
By the time Shay rounded towards
second base, the right fielder had the ball . The
smallest guy on their team who now had his first
chance to be the hero for his team.
He
could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman
for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's
intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the
ball high and far over the third-baseman's
head.
Shay ran toward third base
deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled
the bases toward home.
All were
screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way
Shay'
Shay reached third base
because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by
turning him in the direction of third base, and
shouted, 'Run to third!
Shay, run to
third!'
As Shay rounded third, the
boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on
their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run
home!'
Shay ran to home, stepped on the
plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the
grand slam and won the game for his
team
'That day', said the father
softly with tears now rolling down his face, 'the
boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true
love and humanity into this
world'.
Shay didn't make it to
another summer. He died that winter, having never
forgotten being the hero and making me so happy,
and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully
embrace her little hero of the
day!
AND NOW A LITTLE FOOT NOTE TO
THIS STORY:
We all send thousands of jokes
through the e-mail without a second thought, but
when it comes to sending messages about life
choices, people hesitate.
The crude,
vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through
cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is
too often suppressed in our schools and
workplaces.
If you're thinking
about forwarding this message, chances are that
you're probably sorting out the people in your
address book who aren't the 'appropriate' ones to
receive this type of message Well, the person who
sent you this believes that we all can make a
difference.
We all have thousands of
opportunities every single day to help realize the
'natural order of things.'
So many
seemingly trivial interactions between two people
present us with a choice:
Do we pass along
a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass
up those opportunities and leave the world a
little bit colder in the process?
A
wise man once said every society is judged by how
it treats it's least fortunate amongst
them.
You now have two
choices:
1. Delete
2.
Forward
May your day, be a Shay Day.
MAY
GOD BLESS EVERYONE WHO
DECIDES TO PASS THIS ON
IN
MEMORY
OF SHAY..............
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