Once a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day.
Off in the distance he could see a young boy going back and forth between the surf's edge and and the beach.
Back and forth the boy went.
As the man approached, he could see that there were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide.
The man was stuck by the the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to die.
As he approached, the boy continued the task of picking up starfish one by one and throwing them back into the sea.
As he came up to the boy he said, "You must be crazy ! There are thousands of miles of beach covered with starfish. You can't possibly make a difference."
The boy looked at the man. He then bent down and picked up one more starfish, and threw it back into the sea. He turned back to the man and said,
"But it made a difference to that one"
