Two Choices

[Guest guest]

What would you do? You make the choice! Don'tlook for a punch line;

There isn't one! Read itanyway. My question to all of you is: Would

youhave made the same choice?

At a fundraising dinner for a school thatserves learning disabled

children,the father ofone of the students delivered a speech

thatwould never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the

school and its dedicatedstaff, he offered a question:

"When not interfered with by outsideinfluences, everything nature does

is done withperfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learnthings as other

children do. He cannotunderstand 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 achild like Shay,

physically and mentallyhandicapped comes into the world,

anopportunity to realize true human naturepresents itself, and it

comes, in the way other people treat that child."Then he told

thefollowing story:

Shay and his father had walked past a parkwhere some boys Shay knew

were playingbaseball. Shay asked,"Do you think they'll letme play?"

Shay's father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like

Shay on theirteam, but the father also understood that ifhis son were

allowed to play, it would give hima much-needed sense of belonging and

someconfidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

Shay's father approached one of the boys on thefield and asked if Shay

could play, notexpecting much. The boy looked around forguidance and

said, "We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning.

I guesshe can be on our team and we'll try to put himin to bat in the

ninth inning."

Shay struggled over to the team's bench put ona team shirt with a

broad smile and his Fatherhad a small tear in his eye and warmth in

hisheart. The boys saw the father's joy at his son being accepted. In

the bottom of the eighthinning, Shay's team scored a few runs but

wasstill behind by three. In the top of the ninthinning, Shay put on

a glove and played in theright field. Even though no hits came his

way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in thegame and on the

field, grinning from ear to earas his father waved to him from the

stands. Inthe bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's teamscored again.

Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run

was on baseand Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and giveaway their chance to

win the game?Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyoneknew that

a hit was all but impossible 'cause

Shay didn't even know how to hold the batproperly, much less connect with the ball.

However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, thepitcher, recognizing the

other team puttingwinning aside for this moment in Shay's life,moved

in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least be

able to make contact.The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsilyand

missed. The pitcher again took a few stepsforward 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 thepitcher.

The game would now be over, but the pitcherpicked up the soft grounder

and could haveeasily 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 overthe head of the first

baseman, out of reach ofall team mates. Everyone from the stands

andboth teams started yelling, "Shay, run to first! Run to first!"

Never in his life hadShay ever ran that far but made it to firstbase.

He scampered down the baseline,

wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run tosecond!" Catching his breath,

Shay awkwardlyran towards second, gleaming and struggling tomake it

to second base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the

right fielderhad the ball, the smallest guy on their team,who had a

chance to be the hero for his teamfor the first time. He could have

thrown theball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood

the pitcher's intentions and he toointentionally threw the ball high

and far overthe third-baseman's head. Shay ran toward thirdbase

deliriously as the runners ahead of himcircled the bases toward home.

 

All were screaming, "Shay, Shay, Shay, all theWay Shay"

Shay reached third base, the opposing shortstopran to help him and

turned him in the directionof third base, and shouted, "Run to

third!Shay, run to third" As Shay rounded third, the boys from both

teams and those watching were on their feet were screaming, "Shay,

run home!Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and wascheered as

the hero who hit the "grand slam"and won the game for his team.

That day, said the father softly with tears nowrolling down his face,

the boys from both teamshelped bring a piece of true love and

humanityinto this world.

Shay didn't make it to another summer and diedthat winter, having

never forgotten being thehero and making his Father so happy and

cominghome and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of

the day!

AND, NOW A LITTLE FOOTNOTE 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 think twice about sharing. The crude, vulgar, and often

obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about

decency is too oftensuppressed in our schools and workplaces.

If you're thinking about forwarding thismessage,chances are that

you're probablysorting out the people on your address listthat aren't

the "appropriate" ones to receive this type of message. Well, the

person who sentyou this believes that we all can make adifference. We

all have thousands ofopportunities every single day to help realizethe

"natural order of things." So many seemingly trivial interactions

between twopeople present us with a choice: Do we passalong a little

spark of love and humanity or dowe pass up that opportunity to

brighten the dayof those with us the least able, and leave the world

a little bit colder in the process?

A wise man once said every society is judged byhow it treats it's least fortunate amongst them.

You now have two choices:

1. Delete

2. Forward

May your day, be a Shay Day,

sunny today, tomorrow & always!

We speak much of tolerance as if it were the great virtue, but it does

not go far enough. Who wants to be tolerated, just to be put up with?

It was not said,"Tolerate your neighbor," but instead, "Love your

neighbors." Each person wants to be loved and appreciated and enjoyed

for who and what they are and for what they can do for their friends

and neighbors. Of all that anyone leading or teaching has to convey,

the most valuable thing to learn and convey to others is a moral

conscience. Only such persons deserve to lead others, in any

capacity. Anything less is a menace to society.

Flourishingly,Dharma MitraDharmaMitra2 AT gmail.com

Helping you "Say It With Panache!"Because, how you say it can be,

and often is, as important as what you want to convey, and

what you have to say is

very important to you.

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