The Starfish Story

One day while a young man was walking along the beach early one morning, he noticed the tide had washed thousands of starfish up onto the shore. Ahead, he spotted an older man gathering up the starfish one by one and then tossing them back into the ocean. He approached the old man and asked why he spent so much energy doing what seemed to be a waste of time. The man replied, “The starfish cannot live if they are left out in the sun.”

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Then the young man gazed out as far as he could see and responded, “But there must be thousands of miles of beaches and countless starfish. You can’t possibly rescue all of them. What difference is throwing back a few going to make anyway?” The old man bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled, and said, “It made a difference to that one…”

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After a moment, the young man leaned over, picked up a starfish and joined the older man throwing them into the water.

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By Loren Eiseley