The other morning a friend was using her birthday as a way to raise funds through facebook, for a non-profit organization that inspires her. She was close to her goal of $200. Her mission made me think of a tale, originally part of a 16-page essay by Loren Eiseley. I have often turned to it for encouragement when I felt I wasn’t making as much of a difference in my daily life as I’d like… not starting schools in Africa, curing cancer with lasers, inventing robotic vehicles to remove plastic from our oceans, or many of the other remarkable activities being done to contribute to humanity. It’s one of my favorites, and I hope you’ll find inspiration in its message:

While walking along a beach, an elderly gentleman saw someone in the distance leaning down, picking something up and throwing it into the ocean.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, picking up starfish one by one and tossing each one gently back into the water.

He came closer still and called out, “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young man paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean.”

The old man smiled, and said, “I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?”

To this, the young man replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.”

Upon hearing this, the elderly observer commented, “But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can’t possibly make a difference!”

The young man listened politely. Then he bent down, picked up another starfish, threw it back into the ocean past the breaking waves and said, “It made a difference for that one.”

Sometimes it’s as important to look at the small starfish as at the vast beach.

 

Originally published in the July 25, 2019 issue of Beyond the Nest’s Free Weekly Newsletter of Arts, Culture, Recreation and things to do around Greater Rochester.