The Starfish

There once was a young boy who went to the beach for a holiday with his family. He was sad to see that every day as the tide went out hundreds of starfish were left to dry up and die on the beach. Each day he would run along the tide, looking for starfish and throw them back into the water. His parents, frustrated that he was not building sand castles and splashing in the water as they expected, tried to discourage this behavior. As they walked along the beach with him, searching for starfish, his mother said, “Why are you doing this? When we go home, there will be no one to do it. What difference does it make?" His father added, “You are wasting your time. Think of all the starfish that get washed up on beaches all over the world every day. You can’t possibly make a difference.” The little boy stubbornly picked up one more starfish, threw it back out to sea, turned to his parents and said, “I made a difference for that one!”