The Starfish Story

Loren Eiseley tells the story of a writer who is vacationing in a hotel on the coast and decides to take a break from his work by strolling along the sandy beach. In the distance, he spies a person whom he believes, at the time, is dancing, and is so intrigued he investigates further.

As he approaches the “dancer,” he realizes it is a young man and he is not dancing, but throwing objects from the beach into the ocean. He gets closer still and discovers that the man is picking up starfish from the beach, where thousands have been stranded by low tide, and is throwing them back, one by one, into the ocean.

The writer asks the man why he is undertaking such a task and the man replies that if he does not, the starfish will certainly die. At this, the writer scoffs and informs the man that there are miles and miles of beach and tens of thousands of starfish and he can’t possibly believe that what he is doing will make a difference.

The young man pauses and gives thought to this observation. Then, picking up another starfish from the beach, he tells the writer as he throws it back into the ocean...“It makes a difference to this one.”