The little girl’s smile suddenly vanished. She noticed the crowd of
people for the first time, and she realized they had been laughing at
her. And now they had fallen silent, awaiting her answer to the man’s
question.
She was hot. She was tired and close to tears. She began to think
that maybe he was right. Maybe they were all right. She had been
tossing back starfish for what seemed like hours, and yet a carpet of
starfish still covered the beach. How could she have possibly thought
she could make a difference? Her arms fell limp at her sides, and the
starfish she was holding fell back to the hot sand. She started to walk
away.
Then suddenly she stopped, turned around, reached back down, and
picked up the starfish she had dropped. She swung back her arm and
tossed the starfish as far as she possibly could. When it landed with a
plop, she turned to the man, and with a huge smile on her face she
said:
“I made a difference to that one!”
Inspired, a little boy emerged from the crowd, and he too picked up a
starfish and sent it soaring back to the sea.
“And I made a difference to that one!” he said.
One by one every person in the crowd, old and young, joined in
sending dy- ing starfish back to the sea, calling: “I made a difference
to that one!” with each toss.
After a while the voices began to quiet down. The little girl became
aware of this, and she wondered if the people were getting tired or
discouraged. And so she looked across the beach. What she saw
startled and amazed her. All the starfish were gone!
Many years later, another little girl was walking down the same
beach. She reached the top of a sand dune, and came to a sudden
stop. As far as her eyes could see, there were people tossing starfish
into the sea. Curious, she ap- proached an older man. “Could you