Making a Difference
This story was shared by an iFoG member when we first started the support group in 2001 - it became a motivating factor for iFoG:
The Star Thrower
Loren Eisley, a scientist and a poet, is attributed with the story of the Star Thrower.
There was once a wise man, a writer, who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He would walk along the beach, gathering his thoughts before he began his writing. One day as he walked along the shore, he saw someone gracefully moving up and down the beach, as if dancing with the waves. He smiled to think that someone would dance to begin the day. As he drew closer, he saw that it was a young man, and that he was not dancing, but was reaching down to pick up something from the sand, and running to the sea, tossing it gently into the ocean.
As he got closer he called out, "Good morning! What are you doing?" The young man stopped, looked up and answered, "I'm throwing starfish back into the ocean."
"But why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?"
The young man replied, "The sun is coming up and the tide is going out. I don't throw them back in, they'll die."
"But young man, don't you see that there are miles of beach and starfish all along the way? What difference will you make?"
The young man listened politely, then reaching down and picking up another starfish, ran to the water and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves. "It made a difference to that one."
His answer surprised the man. He didn't know how to reply and so he turned away to return to his cottage to write.
All that day, even as he wrote, he couldn't stop thinking about the young man. The image wouldn't go away. Finally, late in the afternoon, he realized that he the scientist, the writer, had missed the essential lesson of the young man. He realized that what the young man was doing was choosing not to be an observer, watching the world pass by, but was choosing to be an actor in the universe and make a difference. He was embarrassed.
That night he went to bed troubled. When morning came, he awoke knowing that he had to do something. So he got up, got dressed, went to the beach and found the young man. And together, they spent the rest of the morning throwing starfish back into the ocean. You see the young man's actions represent something special in each one of us. We are given the ability to make a difference. When we become aware of this gift, we hold the power to shape the future.
Remember: Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.