I received a Facebook forward on my superwall yesterday and I can’t get into it now to copy it into here and since receiving it, it has bothered me on just about every level.

But here we go…

It was a great story.

It put a tear in my eye; it did, it really did!

In essence, it was the tale of a father who asked if his handicapped son could take part in a softball game.

The team accepted and “Shay” was accepted onto a team which was (I think) three runs down in the eight inning. The long and the short of this tale is that the winning team threw the game because “Shay” was given the opportunity to make a grand slam by virtue of soft pitches and fouled base throws.

I love baseball and it’s a great story…and you know what?

It might be true.

But I don’t believe we need these types of story to make us stop and think.

I believe we are put on this earth with an equal proposition: You can be something, or you can be nothing. 

Now, something always gets in the way of that and generally speaking, the impediments to any person’s growth are: Parents, Religion, Education, Society!

At some point in any human’s growth, he or she, will come head-to-head with one of the above; most probably, all of the above.

One of the most fundamental, hard as nails tenets of the religion in which I was brought up is this:

You are born a sinner!

Well that can’t be true, because -and I’ll use a legal term here- people of diminished responsibility can’t possilbly be born that way!

And only for this reason: That can’t be right!

So, let’s say you’ve been through the grinder of parents, society, peer-pressure, religion…

And to a greater or lesser extent, the end product will have been moulded by these influences; but all along the path, there has been the ability to choose.

So what’s left?

It’s you!

Strip everything away: all that’s left is You.

I have three sons.  I look at my boys and wonder sometimes. I wonder that they’re so grown up. But they are their own people. I look at my boys and wonder. I wonder because they’re so grown up; I wonder because they’re so human.

But I also wonder because they know so little and think, such innocence and fundamental goodness cannot possibly exist in a state of Original Sin.

And as I sit here now, the world seems to have gone mad! 

Sometimes the temptation can be to go: to run away; anywhere, just somewhere.

And again, we’re back to the same question:

Who do you meet when you get there? 

Life is a series of anchors. We humans need them and sometimes, we humans throw the anchors in the bad ground; but that’s choice.

In essence, we are all good: many choose not to be.

But when it comes to finding who and what you are:

Get an airplane ticket to…anywhere…run…get there and see: who’s the first person you meet?

Then, look in the mirror and ask this question: “What choices have brought me to this point?”