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.
B y 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
I’m Andy Henry,
I’ve been using the Internet for marketing purposes since 1999 and I’ve used just about every method you could hear of.
I’ve created this blog so that I can share what works and what doesn’t with anyone who’s walking a similar path and doesn’t want to have to relearn the lessons I learned the hard (and long) way.
