What Does it Take to Make a Difference?


A man was walking down a deserted beach at sunrise.  As he walked along, he began to see another man in the distance.  As he grew nearer, he noticed that the man was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time, he was throwing them back in the water.  Intrigued, he walked over to him asked the man why he was doing this.

"I'm throwing them back in because the sun is up and the tide is going out.  If they don't get back in the water they will die."

"But...there must be thousands of starfish on this beach.  You can't possibly get to all of them.  There are too many.  And anyway, don't you realise this is happening for miles up and down this beach?  Don't you see that you can't possibly make a difference?"

The other man smiled, bent down and picked up yet another starfish, as he threw it out into the sea, he replied, "Made a difference to that one."
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It's an enduring misconception that a difference of any real significance cannot be manifested unless it is implemented on a large scale.  A mere glimpse through the daily news provides plenty of evidence that we are living in a world of rampant injustice, greed, corruption and cruelty. 
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