| A lesson for us all in this story. In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters
to
learning disabled children. Some children remain in
Chush for their entire school career, while others can be
mainstreamed
into conventional schools.
At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush
child delivered a speech that would never be forgotten
by all who attended. After extolling the school and its
dedicated staff, he cried out, "Where is the perfection
in
my son, Shay? Everything God does is done with
perfection. But my child cannot understand things as
other children do. My child cannot remember facts and
figures as other children do. Where is God's perfection?
The audience was shocked by the question, pained by
the father's anguish and stilled by the piercing query.
"I believe," the father answered, "that when God brings
a child like this into the world, the perfection that he seeks
is in the way people react to this child."
He then told the following story about his son Shay:
One afternoon, Shay and his father 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 his son was not at all athletic and
that most boys would not want him on their team. But Shay's
father understood that if his son was chosen to play it
would give him a comfortable sense of belonging.
Shay's father approached one of the boys in the field and
asked if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance
from his team-mates. 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."
Shay's father was ecstatic as Shay smiled broadly. Shay was
told to put on a glove and go out to play short center field. In the bottom
of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few
runs but was still behind by three.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again and
now with two outs and the bases loaded with the potential
winning run on base. Shay was scheduled to be up. 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 it was all but impossible
because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat
properly, let alone hit with it. However as Shay stepped up to
the plate, the pitcher moved a few steps to lob the
ball in softly so
Shay should at least be able to make contact.
The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. One of
Shay's team-mates came up to Shay and together they held the
bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch. The pitcher
again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward
Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay and his teammate
swung at the ball and
together they 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 run to first. He scampered down the baseline,
wide-eyed and startled. By the time he reached first base, the
right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the
second baseman who would tag out Shay, who was still running.
But the right fielder understood what the pitcher's intentions
were, so he threw the ball high and far over the
third baseman's head.
Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second." Shay ran
towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously
circled the bases towards home.
As Shay reached second base, the opposing short stop 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 ran behind
him
screaming, "Shay run home." Shay ran home, stepped on home plate
and all 18 boys lifted him on their shoulders and made him the
hero,
as he had just hit a "grand slam" and won the game for his team.
That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down his
face, "those 18 boys reached their level of
God's perfection."
Funny how this is so true! Funny how simple it is for people to
trash different ways of living and believing and
then wonder why the
world is going to hell.
Funny how people can send a thousand 'jokes' through e-mail and
they spread like wildfire, but when one starts
sending messages regarding
life choices, people think twice about sharing.
Funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through
cyberspace, but public discussion of morality is too often
suppressed in school and the
workplace. Funny how
when you go to forward this message
(if you choose to forward it), you will not send it to many on your address list
because you're not sure what they believe, or
what they will think of you
for sending it to them. Funny
how we can be more worried about what other people think of
us than what we think of ourselves.
At
a time when technology can bring this
letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to make a
difference or just hit delete.
Keep reaching for that
level of perfection.
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