Touching - - Profil3

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 into referred 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 t he 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 bal l 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 'a
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: