Star Thrower

As I was browsing through HONY's (Humans of New York) Facebook, I came upon a reply post I really liked. The Starfish Story, is what he called it. It's adapted from Loren C. Eiseley's "Star Thrower". There are certain reads that I come upon and just skip, but this one makes me feel all happy and warm inside. Read for yourself:

"Star Thrower"

Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.

One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.

He came closer still and called out “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young man paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean.”

“I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?” asked the somewhat startled wise man.

To this, the young man replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.”

Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, “But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can’t possibly make a difference!”

At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, “It made a difference for that one.”

I find stories such as this to be very inspirational to me. I've always wanted to somehow change the world positively. It's not that I want to be recognized for being a saint or a savior, but rather that I am happy to know I made a change in someone's life. I hope that one day I can make millions of people smile because I put an effort to help make even just one day in their lives better. Of course it sounds extremely cliche of me to say these things (and I know it). However, I believe that kindness has it's chain effect: If you are nice to someone today, they will deliver that kindness to someone else tomorrow. Perhaps there are bad things happening, and we can't prevent it all, but there is the element called effort that everyone can give.


I am very privileged to call myself an American. I have less worries and fears than those who live in third world countries. We are more sheltered than we think we are from the rest of the world. People die of disease, terrorist, Taliban, genocide, you name it. And yet, I am here, enjoying the protection I can receive while knowing that other people are suffering. There are times that I feel useless in the fact that I can't do anything to change what's going on outside. I feel useless that I can't make a big enough difference for the world to notice there needs to be change. But, I have confidence that I can change the world, one person at a time.


I think I am done with my highly cliche and emotional blog for the night. Though, I genuinely feel for what I wrote. Difference doesn't come in bundles of large quantities, it's more like a summation of changes and effort. Math pun intended.