Early one morning as an old man was walking along the beach, he noticed the tide had washed thousands of starfish up on the shore. Up ahead in the distance he spotted a young boy who appeared to be gathering up the starfish one by one, tossing them back into the ocean. The old man approached the boy and asked him why he spent so much energy doing what seemed to be a waste of time. The boy replied, "If these starfish are left out here like this they will bake in the sun, and by this afternoon they will all be dead." The old man gazed out as far as he could see and responded, "But, there must be many miles of beach and thousands of starfish. You can't possibly rescue all of them. What difference is throwing a few back going to make anyway?" The boy then held up the starfish he had in his hand and replied, "Well, sir, it's sure going to make a lot of difference to this one!" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This story reminds me of a quote from Edward Everett Hale: I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something I can do. There are a countless number of opportunities where we can make a difference every day. At times, however, we do not take action because we think we can only do a little and it won't make a difference. However, the story and the quote above reminds us that even if we can only do a little, we can make a difference.
