Starfish

Starfish

An old man was walking along the beach and saw, in the distance, the silhouette of a figure bending down to the sand, running to the water’s edge with a throwing movement, and returning to the beach. With the grace and action of a dancer, this action was repeated again and again.

As the old man drew closer he saw the silhouette was a young man, bending down to pick up a starfish stranded on the beach by the outgoing tide, running down to the waves to cast it into the water then returning to the beach to rescue yet another starfish.

“Why are you doing that?” the old man asked. He pointed to the long stretch of beach sparkling with thousands of stranded starfish. “It won’t make any difference”.

The young man did not reply, he simply picked up another starfish and returned it to the water. When he came back he looked at the old man and said “It made a difference to that one”.