Making a difference 
by Loren C. Eiseley, The Star Thrower

An old man was walking along the ocean shoreline one morning after a very high tide.  As he walked along, he saw hundreds of starfish that had been washed ashore, and he realized that they would die if they were not returned to the sea.  But there were so many, there was no way to save them.  Suddenly he saw a young boy bending over, picking something up and throwing it into the water.  He approached the young boy and realized that the boy was methodically bending down, picking up a starfish and throwing it into the ocean and repeating this same process again and again.  The old man stopped the boy and asked him why he was bothering.  What difference would it make?  There were simply too many starfish.  The boy looked at the old man, bent down, and picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean.  As he did so, he said, “It makes a difference for that one.”