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Welcome to Selections of Poetry, Prose or Short Essays submitted by readers.
| Poem/Prose/Short Essay - Author |
| This will give you cold chills, but puts life into perspective!
At a fund-raising 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:
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."
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.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again.
Now, with two outs and 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. 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."
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.
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!"
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.
"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.
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:
1. Delete this.
2. Forward it to the people you care about.
You know the choice... - unknown, thanks to Lou Pelligrino |
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