You may have heard this one, but I find that it doesn’t hurt to be reminded of it every once in a while. First let me tell you the story, and then we can talk about it.
Once upon a time, there was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning before he began his work. Early one morning, he was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, stretching in both directions.
Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching. As the boy walked, he paused every so often and as he grew closer, the man could see that he was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the sea. The boy came closer still and the man called out, “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”
The young boy paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves,” the youth replied. “When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.”
The old man replied, “But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.”
The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that one!”
adapted from The Star Thrower, by Loren Eiseley (1907 – 1977)
We all have the opportunity to help create positive change, but if you’re like me, you sometimes find yourself thinking, “I’m already really busy, and how much of a difference can I really make?” I think this is especially true when we’re talking about addressing massive social problems like tackling world hunger or finding a cure for cancer, but it pops up all of the time in our everyday lives, as well. So when I catch myself thinking that way, it helps to remember this story. You might not be able to change the entire world, but at least you can change a small part of it, for someone.
They say that one of the most common reasons we procrastinate is because we see the challenge before us as overwhelming, and that a good way to counter that is to break the big challenge down into smaller pieces and then take those one at a time–like one starfish at a time. And to that one starfish, it can make a world of difference.
“A single, ordinary person still can make a difference – and single, ordinary people are doing precisely that every day.”
— Chris Bohjalian, Vermont-based author and speaker
Related Post:
“Changing Course: How America Got Lost, and How We Can Find Our Way Back Together“
EventsForChange 
October 12th, 2014 at 10:42 am
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[…] They all need help, and really, the world is full of lonely or sad people, and the number who are in awful situations just feels overwhelming. How can I do anything about that? I’m reminded of the story of the boy and the beach full of stranded starfish. […]
March 16th, 2015 at 3:11 pm
Pick up the starfish and put them back in the ocean, yes!! And pick up trash, and make sure the oceans get cleaner! Like the boy who kept returning the starfish to the ocean, as many as he could!
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[…] Taken from Events for Change […]
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April 20th, 2015 at 9:27 pm
[…] *For readers who might not know this story, you can read it here: https://eventsforchange.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/the-starfish-story-one-step-towards-changing-the-wo… […]
April 30th, 2015 at 8:03 pm
[…] https://eventsforchange.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/the-starfish-story-one-step-towards-changing-the-wo… […]
May 15th, 2015 at 3:28 pm
Reblogged this on Liberation through Lyme and commented:
I’ve always lived this parable. Sometimes our actions may seem futile, but I know that if I can help one person that I’ve made a difference. As Mother Teresa said, “Not all of us can do great things, but we can we do small things with great love.”
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[…] Help the student we recruit become a strong reader. This is simply the parable of the starfish on the beach. […]
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[…] was reminded of the story about the many starfish stranded on shore and the one starfish thrown back into the ocean. Hopefully this past week we’ve made a difference. Even if we’ve only managed to put things in […]
June 14th, 2015 at 6:20 am
[…] Help the specific student we recruit become a strong reader. This is simply the parable of the starfish on the beach. […]
July 3rd, 2015 at 2:48 pm
Reblogged this on Unsung Heroes.
July 27th, 2015 at 11:52 pm
[…] I don’t know enough to answer whether or not that is being maximized, but in the vein of the starfish story, it has changed this […]
September 5th, 2015 at 4:53 am
[…] And have you read the classic story of the boy throwing starfish back into the ocean? […]
September 19th, 2015 at 4:10 am
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September 30th, 2015 at 6:29 am
[…] *For readers who might not know this story, you can read it here: https://eventsforchange.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/the-starfish-story-one-step-towards-changing-the-wo… […]
October 4th, 2015 at 9:15 am
[…] a quick fix. It is a slow process to have an impact on an organization. Similar to the story of the boy throwing starfish one at a time into the ocean to save them – The old man replied, “But there must be tens of […]