So we made it to Zurich and it’s going well. Half way through day 1 and everyone is getting it so far.
Manchester next week, so watch out for the photo.

What would you do?  You make the choice.  Don’t look for a punch line,
there isn’t one..  Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the
same choice?

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning
disabilities, 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, who was
mentally and physically disabled 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 I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing
baseball. Shay asked, “Do you think they’ll let me play?”

I knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their
team, but as a father I also understood that if my 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.

I 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.  I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth in my heart.
The boys saw my joy at my 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 I
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 me so happy, and coming home 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 cyber space, 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 every society is judged by how it treats
it’s least fortunate amongst them.

May your day be a Shay Day.

Following on from the success of their first XPages Workshop Avnet Technical Solutions are running another XPages workshop on the 9th & 10th of June in Switzerland. Click here for details.

R-Com Consulting are running their first XPages workshop in Manchester on the 16th & 17th  June. Click here for details.

My first experience of the OU is that it’s a massive huge sprawling campus that is covered in welcome letters, registration packs, books and student agreements.

The amount of paper used in one single course registration is staggering.

However it’s not as initially overwhelming as the amount of course ware I have to study along with a full time job.

This is the first time I have attempted to study after leaving the education system far behind me some 22 years ago. This, I fear, is going to put me right back where I left off. Bemused, overloaded, uninspired and lacking in motivation to hand in my homework. Thankfully I don’t have detention with some nasty over zealous teacher to look forward to. Or the obligatory “dog ate my homework” excuses to try and imagine.

So here I go, into an OU course, full of trepidation about failing and what that would say to me about me.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. ;o)

These lucky folks are the latest group to get up to speed on XPages.
Will you be next?

I’m trying to work out if anyone wants try taking the XPages workshop as an online presentation and then a self paced set of downloads.

I’m also trying to work out how we go about supporting your question that come up through the exercises.

All good ideas greatly welcomed. (Please leave comments)

Great day yesterday and all of the class turned up again today. I’m looking forward to today and all the learning that is happening. All the questions are great and there are lots of them.

Day 1 of the class went really well with all of the students getting to the end of lesson 14. So Matt and I just have to get them along to lesson 26 today and they can then go of into a brave new world armed with the ability to render Notes applications using XPages.
After the long day 1 schedule Matt & I went into Stockholm city centre and found a drink or two and discussed the day and how tomorrow should go.

Set up is finished, all we need now is a beer, some sleep and the 18 registered attendees to turn up tomorrow.

We're ready for XPages Stockholm