What would you do?....you make the choice.
Don't look for a punch line, there isn't one. Read
it anyway. The 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 don e with
perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn th ings 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 S hay
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 sc h eduled 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, muc h
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 ba ll rig ht
back to the pitcher.

The game would now be ov er. 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 Sh a y 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 pit cher's i ntentions 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 th ir d!
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 ha ppy , and coming
home and seeing his Mother tearfully e mbra ce 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 cybersp ace , 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 he lp rea lize 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.

Thanks Jack,
Glad your here,thanks for being a  great friend

Aaron and Kathy