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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.............. |
yahoo.com)
