One At A Time

A friend of ours was walking down a deserted Mexican
Beach at sunset. As he walked along, he began to
see another man in the distance. As he grew nearer,
he noticed the local native kept leaning down,
picking something up and throwing it into the water.
Time and time again, he kept hurling things into the ocean.

Our friend was puzzled. He approached the man and said:
"Good Evening, friend. I was wondering what are you doing?"
"I'm throwing these starfish back into the ocean.
You see, it's low tide right now and all of these starfish
have been washed up onto the shore. If I don't throw them
back into the sea, they'll die up here from the lack of oxygen."

"I understand", my friend replied, "but there must be
thousands of starfish on this beach. You can't possibly
get to all of them. There are simply too many. And don't
you realize this is probably happening on hundreds of beaches
up and down the coast. Can't you see that you can't possibly
make a difference?"

The local native smiles, bent down, and picked up yet another
starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea, he replied,
"Made a difference to that one!"

-- Chicken Soup For the Soul