There was a man, walking along a shoreline. There had been a particularly heavy storm recently, which had washed thousands of starfish onto the beach. They were drying on the hot sand, dying. The man continued walking until he came upon another man, picking up starfish, one by one, and throwing them into the sea. The man approached the other and asked, “what are you doing?” the other man replied, “these starfish will die without water, so I am returning them to the sea.” The man said, “you can’t save all of them, don’t you realize that what you are doing doesn’t matter?” The other man bends down to the sand, picks up a starfish and throws it back into the surf. He turns to the man and replies, “it mattered to that one.”

2:09 pm  •  4 May 2012  •  2 notes