A good pass it on

[crap-king]

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 came20in, 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 o ver 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.

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.




May your day be a Shay Day.

[rnvinc]

I think I have read that story a hundred times in e-mails and it still chokes me up every time....

[gabowman]

That's a moving story. I had gotten that one as an email before and I forwarded it to everybody in my address book. It came back to me a couple times down the line so I knew it was circulating alot.

This one reminds me of the one last spring where a college softball girl hit a home run and twisted her foot on 1st base. Ruling was she had to run the bases unassisted by HER team but couldnt so the opposing team mates carried her thru the bases.

There's alot said from those two stories. Alot of us adults could learn ALOT from the younger generations.

[SkinMan]

Wow. What an amazing story. I'm speechless...

[STUMP HUNTER]

I hope others will read this and think about how they treat others. When someone is going through a hard time, instead of pushing them down more, reach out a hand and tell them that they are loved.---Ronnie

[CrappiePappy]

'cause we all know ... what goes around, comes around

That story reminds me of a long ago time ... back when I was in the 4th grade. My new Elementary School was being built, so I spent that year going to a Church that was used as a grade school classroom. I had a classmate named Doug, who had Cerebral Palsy. He sat right next to me, and the teacher allowed me to help him whenever he needed a little help with his work. I wasn't doing his work for him, nor giving him the answers to his class problems ... just helping him, by encouraging him, whenever he got frustrated with his limitations. Whenever recess came, we were usually divided into teams and played "team games". The one I remember most vividly, was "Red Rover". Each team stood, hand in hand, on opposite sides of the playground ... and would yell out to the other team : "Red Rover, Red Rover .. we dare "so & so" over. That person would run towards the other team, and try to run thru the clasped hands of two of the opposing team members. If you made it thru, you brought one of that team's members back to your team ... if you didn't break the clasped hands, you were then a member of that team. I remember that Doug was involved in this game, and even though he could no more "run" or "break through the other team's clasped hands", than I could slam dunk a basketball .... he was "allowed" to break through, as often as not.
I have little doubt that Doug (or "Duggie", as we called him) knew that he was being allowed to break through ... but, the smile on his face and the laughter of his glee at being a successful team member, sure hid any sign of him feeling that he was being treated "special".
My year with "Duggie" taught me to try and look past a person's outer self ... and try and connect with the inner self, before making any judgement on their character. Sometimes it's not enough to follow the rule of "Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you" ... sometimes it's more rewarding to "do more" for others, than you would have them do for you.

... cp

[fish_4_all]

My grandma once told me that there is a special way to determine if any act is truly human nature. If you can change the second letter of the second word and add an R it is human nature. It took me many days to figure it out.

Human nature = human nurture

Sometimes this meant being overly nice and sometimes it means having to put ones foot down to teach a lesson.

Whatever she meant by it, it works in about every act I ever see and do.

I have never received this story before but I have received many similar to it. And no offense to the religious here, I will forward a story like that before any other type of email story I ever receive.

[Barnacle Bill]

Fantastic CK!!!

[sailfish1]

i'm with skinman,i too am speechless. sometimes we all need things put back into perspective

[horseshoer]

Good post CK and very true.