Voice
Starfish Story
Literature
A man walking down the beach sees a young boy picking up something and gently tossing it into the ocean. When the man asks what he’s doing, the boy replies that he’s tossing starfish back into the ocean to catch the high tide so they’ll survive.
The man laughs, saying that’s impossible. “There are thousands of miles of beach covered with starfish,” the man says. “You can’t possibly make a difference.”
The boy picks up a starfish and tosses it into the ocean. “Made a difference to that one,” the boy says.
–Adapted from Loren Eiseley’s “The Star Thrower”