Originally published at idle musings. Please leave any comments there.
An old lady is walking along a beach and millions of starfish have washed up on the shore. The old lady is walking slowly down the beach and picking up starfish one by one and throwing them back into the ocean. A little boy sees her and says, “Why are you doing that?”
The lady replies, “These starfish will die if they stay on the shore. I’m throwing them back so they can have a second chance at life.”
The little boy says, “But there are millions of starfish on this beach! You’ll never get them all…not even half! Most of them are going to die. What’s the point? It won’t matter in the long run.”
The lady picked up another starfish and threw it in before saying to the boy, “It mattered to that one.”