Once a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance, he saw a person going back and forth between the surf’s edge and the beach. As the man approached, he could see there were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide.
The man was stuck by the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish. As he approached, the person continued the task of picking up starfish one by one and throwing them into the surf.
As he came up to the person, he said: “You must be crazy. There are many miles of beach covered with starfish. You can’t possibly make a difference.”
The person looked up at the man, then stooped down to pick up another starfish to throw into the ocean. He turned back to the man and said: “It sure made a difference to that one".
Author Unknown
Source: The School of Practical Philosophy
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