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[Jo Ann]

I just received an e-mail I would like to share with you.
I would also like to ask you to send it to those you know, if you find it as special as I did.

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 learning-disabled children, 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, physically and mentally handicapped 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 his father had walked  past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay  asked, "Do you think they'll let me play?"  Shay's father  knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on  their team, but the father also understood that if his 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.

Shay's father 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. His Father watched with a small tear  in his eye and warmth in his heart. The boys saw the father's joy  at his 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 his father 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 his father so happy, and coming home 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 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.

 
Jo Ann

[Stacy]

That made me cry. 

[Summer]

I had tears running down my face. 

[chinchillagrl06]

Wow. That was very very moving. 

[Abby W.]

What a beautiful story!  With all the bad things we hear in the papers and on the news it is important to keep in mind the good things, to keep perspective.  Stories like this should be shared with as many people as possible.

[Debbie.nl.ca]

It is so beautiful, and I have seen such awesomeness in my own family.
My son was told in grade 1 he would never be literal because his dyslexia was so bad.
I wouldn't hear tell of that, and wouldn't let his teachers feed into it either.
He can read and write, and is going to college.
I have a cousin that was born with severe disabilities, told she would never walk or talk.
She fooled them and won her running race in the special Olympics in Gander last summer.
The joy she brings to our family is immeasurable, and she is perfect in her own darling ways.
Every child/person deserves the feeling of succeeding no mater what their limitations may be.
 

PS:
Jo Ann it happened to me that time, I added the smiley and all disappeared.
I right clicked and clicked undo, it worked.Brought me back to what I had written.
I wondering if we should be interring the smiley down a line instead of right after the end of a sentence.That's what I just did and it didn't dissapear.?