Starfish

After a friendly debate yesterday over politics and healthcare reform, etc, I was left feeling helpless and silly. I cannot adequately explain the emotion involved in feeling the need to eradicate malaria (an African child dies every 30 seconds from malaria,) or to help feed children left orphaned and starving from mothers who died from HIV infection (acquired from prostituting themselves at ages as young as 11 in order to make money to eat after being orphaned themselves,) or to enable a mother whose child is sick to be able to go see a doctor.

And then I thought of the starfish story. You probably know it, but here it is again:

There once was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day he was walking along the shore, as he looked down the beach, he saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself to think of someone who would dance to the day and he began to walk faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he saw that it was a young man, and the young man wasn’t dancing, but instead he was reaching down to the shore, picking up something, and very gently throwing it into the ocean.

He called out,
“Good morning, what are you doing?”

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

“I guess I should have asked;
why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?”

“The sun is up and the tide is going out.
And if I don’t throw them then they’ll die.”

“But, young man, don’t you realize that there are
miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it.
You can’t possibly make a difference!”

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

-Author Unknown-

I like this parable. It reminds me that every little thing you can do does make a difference, in some amount to someone, and that's it worth keeping on, even in the face of wise old skeptics who sit back and belittle your efforts. Keep on keeping on, you bleeding-heart, tree-hugging, "liberals"! Do what you can, do what feels right, one starfish at a time.