This one is worth your time reading.Two ChoicesWhat 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 thesame choice?At a fund-raising dinner for a school that serves children with learningdisabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech thatwould never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the schooland 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 cannotunderstand things as other children do. Where is the natural order ofthings in my son?'The audience was stilled by the query.The father continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay, who wa smentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity torealize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way otherpeople treat that child.'Then he told the following story:Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playingbaseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?' I knew thatmost of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but as afather I also understood that if my son were allowed to play, it wouldgive him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to beaccepted 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 looke d around for guidance and said, 'We'relosing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he canbe on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.'Sha y struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on ateam 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 wasstill behind by three.In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in theright field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstaticjust to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as Iwaved 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 onbase and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.At this j uncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to winthe game?Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all butimpossible because Shay didn't even know h ow to hold the bat properly,much less connect with the ball.However, as Shay stepped up to theplate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winningaside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ballin 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 towardsShay.As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ballright back to the pitcher.The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder andcould have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman.Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the ga me.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 tofirst! Run to first!'Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to firstbase.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 andstruggling to make it to the base.By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had theball, the smallest guy on their team, who now had his first chance to bethe hero for his team.He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but heunderstood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw theball high and far over the third-baseman's head.Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of himcircled 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< BR>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, wereon their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!'Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero whohit 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 humanityinto this world'.Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having neverforgotten being the hero and making me so happy, and coming home andseeing 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 secondthought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, peoplehesitate.The crude, v ulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, butpublic discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools andworkplaces.If you're thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that you'reprobably sorting out the people in your address book who aren't the'appropriate' ones to receive this type of message. Well, the person whosent you this believes that we all can make a difference.We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realizethe 'natural order of things.'So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us witha choice:Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass upthose opportunities and leave the world a l ittle bit colder in theprocess?A wise man once said, every society is judged by how it treats it's leastfortunate amongst them.You now have two choices:1. Delete2 . ForwardMay your day, be a Shay Day!"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending."