..... in today's email.
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     yogiinoz
Member
Username: yogiinoz
Post Number: 2346
Registered: 10-2002Rating: 
Votes: 1
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| | Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 12:43 pm: |  
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Two Choices
What would you do? ... you make the choice. Don't look for a punch line,
there isn't one, but please do read it anyway.
My 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 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,
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 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. 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 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 his father so happy and
coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace 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 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, that 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.
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chriso
Member
Username: chriso
Post Number: 79
Registered: 04-2004Rating: N/A
Votes: 0
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| | Friday, August 31, 2007 - 08:54 pm: |
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Hi Yogi
Great story.
I wish the news and current affairs would dedicate their time in telling similar stories.
Chris
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yogiinoz
Member
Username: yogiinoz
Post Number: 2633
Registered: 10-2002Rating: N/A
Votes: 0
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| | Sunday, March 23, 2008 - 09:42 am: |
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BRITAIN IS REPOSSESSING THE U.S.A.
A Message from *John Cleese
To the citizens of the United States of America :
In light of your failure to nominate competent candidates
for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we
hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence,
effective immediately.
Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume
monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and
territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).
Your new prime minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a
governor for America without the need for further elections.
Congress and the Senate will be disbanded.
A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine
whether any of you noticed.
To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the
following rules are introduced with immediate effect: You
should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary.
1. Then look up aluminium, and check the pronunciation
guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have
been pronouncing it.
2. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as
'favour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to
spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters
and the suffix -ize will be replaced by the suffix -ise.
Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary
to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').
3. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with
filler noises such as "like" and "you know" is an
unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.
There is no such thing as US English. We will let
Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker
will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter
'u' and the elimination of -ize. You will relearn your
original national anthem, God Save The Queen.
4. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
5. You will learn to resolve personal issues without
using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you
need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're
not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be
handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort
things out without suing someone or speaking to a
therapist then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.
6. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or
carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler.
A permit will be required if you wish to carry a
vegetable peeler in public.
7. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and
this is for your own good. When we show you German cars,
you will understand what we mean.
8. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts,
and you will start driving on the left with immediate
effect. At the same time, you will go metric with
immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion
tables.
Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand
the British sense of humour.
9. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol
(which you have been calling gasoline), roughly
$6/US gallon. Get used to it.
10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things
you call French fries are not real chips, and those
things you insist on calling potato chips are properly
called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in
animal fat and dressed not with catsup,but with vinegar.
11. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer
is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper
British Bitter will be referred to as beer and European
brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred
to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable as
they are pound for pound the greatest sporting Nation
on earth and it can only be due to the beer.
They are also part of British Commonwealth - see what
it did for them.
12. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast
English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be
required to cast English actors to play English
characters. Watching Andie McDowell attempt English
dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience
akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.
13. You will cease playing American football. There
is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer.
Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to
play rugby (which has some similarities to American
football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every
twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a
bunch of nancies). Don't try Rugby - the South Africans
and Kiwis will thrash you, like they regularly thrash us.
14. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not
reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a
game which is not played outside of America . Since only
2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your
borders, your error is understandable. You will learn
cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first
to take the sting out of their deliveries.
15. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.
16. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from
Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to
ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).
17. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 pm with proper cups,
never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes;
strawberries in season.
God save the Queen; only He can.
John Cleese
=====
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gdd3
Member
Username: gdd3
Post Number: 262
Registered: 09-2002Rating: N/A
Votes: 0
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| | Tuesday, March 25, 2008 - 12:33 pm: |
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Yogi...I enjoyed reading the above; quite a chuckle and look forward to the next "readings"....maybe...
"AUSTRALIA WALKING OUT OF THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH".
Dolphin
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