Fw: A speech to remember

[Guest guest]

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>To: " Jacquetta Arbuckle " quetta5@...>, " Sam Fish " slfish@...>,

>Beaz526@...>, " " simon031003@...>, " Vera Reid "

>VRERNIE@...>, donnavan@...>, " Jim Lane "

>jimlane@...>

>Subject: Fw: A speech to remember

>Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 22:07:10 -0600

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> A speech to remember

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> A speech to remember

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> A speech to remember

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> I'm sending this to you because I KNOW what kind of person you are and

>how much I appreciate that. This will either make you cry, give you cold

>chills or leave you cold, but it puts life into perspective!

>

> At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled

>children, the father of one of the school's 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. " Everything God 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 God's plan reflected in my son? "

> The audience was stilled by the query. The father continued. " I

>believe, " the father answered, " that when God brings a child like Shay into

>the world, an opportunity to realize the Divine Plan presents itself and it

>comes in the way people treat that child. " Then, he told the following

>story:

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> Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew

>were playing baseball. Shay asked, " Do you think they will let me play? "

>Shay's father knew that most boys would not want him on their team. But the

>father understood that if his son were allowed to play it would give him a

>much-needed sense of belonging. Shay's father approached one of the boys on

>the field and asked if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance

>from his teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and

>said, " We are 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 up to bat in the ninth

>inning. "

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> In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but

>was still behind by three. At the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a

>glove and played in the outfield. Although no hits came his way, he was

>obviously ecstatic just to be on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his

>father waved to him from the stands.

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> 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. Shay

>was scheduled to be the next at bat. Would the team actually let Shay bat

>at this juncture 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 moved a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least

>be able to make contact.

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> The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher

>again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shay. As the

>pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball to the

>pitcher. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have

>thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that

>would have ended the game. Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it

>on a high arc to right field, far beyond reach of the first baseman.

>Everyone started yelling, " Shay, run to first, run to first. "

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> Never in his life had Shay ever made it to first base. He scampered down

>the baseline, wide-eyed and startled. Everyone yelled, " run to second, run

>to second! " By the time Shay was rounding first base, the right fielder had

>the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman for a tag.

>But the right fielder understood what the pitcher's intentions had been, so

>he threw the ball high and far over the third baseman's head. Shay ran

>towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the

>bases towards home.

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> As Shay reached second base, the opposing shortstop ran to him, turned

>him in the direction of third base, and shouted, " run to third! " As Shay

>rounded third, the boys from both teams were screaming, " Shay! run home! "

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> Shay ran home, stepped on home plate and was cheered as the hero for

>hitting a " grand slam " and winning the game for his team.

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> " That day, " said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face,

> " the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of the Divine Plan into this

>world. "

>

> And now, a footnote to the story. We all send thousands of jokes through

>e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages

>regarding life choices, people think twice about sharing. The crude,

>vulgar, and sometimes the obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but

>public discussion of decency is too often suppressed in school and the

>workplace.

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> If you are thinking about forwarding this message, you are probably

>thinking about which people on your address list aren't the " appropriate "

>ones to receive this type of message. The person who sent this to you

>believes that we can all make a difference. We all have thousands of

>opportunities a day to help realize God's plan. So many seemingly trivial

>interactions between two people present us with a choice, do we pass along

>a spark of the Divine? Or do we pass up that opportunity and leave the

>world a bit colder in the process? You have two choices now:

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> 1. Delete this.

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> 2. Forward it to the people you care about. You know the choice I made

>

>

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