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.
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 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment