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Parable of the boy throwing starfish back into the sea

There once was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a practice of walking on the beach every morning before beginning his work. 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.

Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching. As the boy walked, he paused every so often. As he grew closer, the old man could see the boy occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the ocean. When the boy grew closer the old man called out, “Good morning! May I ask what it is you are doing?”

The boy paused, looked up, and replied, “Throwing starfish back into the sea, sir! The tide has washed them up on the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves. When the sun gets high they will die unless I throw them back into the water.”

The old man replied, “But there must be thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t be able to make much of a difference.”

The boy bent down, picked up a starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned to the old man and said, “It made a difference to that one.”

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