There was a man who lived on a beautiful beach, next to a fishing colony. On one of his morning walks, he saw a young man throwing the starfish that were on the sand back into the ocean.
— Why do you do this? asked the man. Because the tide is low, and they will die.
— Young man, there are thousands of kilometers of beach across this world and hundreds of thousands of starfish scattered across the sand. What difference can you make?
The young man picked up another star and threw it into the ocean. Then he turned to the man and replied:
— For this one, I made a big difference.
In Starfish we see an idealistic man, who wants to save all the sea stars he can even though he knows he won’t be able to save each one of them.
The other man, who watches the scene, doesn’t understand why the first boy tries so hard, given that they both know that saving all the sea stars is an impossible task.
The young, dreamy man, however, concludes that, at least for some of them, he made a difference. Despite not being able to help everyone, just being able to save a few was worth it.
The story teaches us that we must always do good, even if it seems small.
