Posted by Chuck C. (216.128.199.108) on January 31, 2001 at 09:49:17:
In Reply to: Daniel's starfish posted by Ted on January 31, 2001 at 06:24:29:
A man walked down the beach towards the waters edge.
When he saw an old woman bending down, picking something up, throwing it into the sea and then moving on to repeat the action, he stopped to watch her for a while.
Wondering what she was up to he walked closer to see thousands of little starfish left stranded by the tide in the hot sun. The beach stretched for miles as did the dying starfish.
"There are thousands, maybe millions, he said to the old woman, you can't make a difference"
She bent down slowly, picked one up and tossed it back into the ocean.
"I did for that one" she said.
At this point, the starfish which was thrown into the water said, "did you ever stop to think that perhaps I was trying to get somewhere before you came along and undid any progress I might have made up to this point?"