The Starfish Story
One day, a man was walking along the beach, enjoying the morning sun and cool breeze from the ocean.Suddenly, far off in the distance, he saw what looked like someone dancing. But as he drew closer, the man noticed that it was a little girl picking up starfish from the shore and tossing them back into the ocean.As he approached the girl, he paused for a moment, kind of puzzled, then asked, “Young lady – why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?”And she replied…”Well, the sun is up, and the tide is going out. If I leave these starfish on the beach, the sun will dry them up and they will die.”And the man said “But there are thousands of starfish washed up all along this beach for miles! You can’t possibly make a difference!”The young girl thought for a moment, then slowly leaned over, and carefully picked up another starfish from the sand. And with the starfish in hand, she turned to the man and gently said “You may be right, but it’ll make a difference to this one!”And with that, she reached back and threw the starfish as far as she could back into the ocean.
— Adapted from The Star Thrower
by Loren C. Eiseley
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