A friend of mine was walking along a Florida Beach the morning after Hurricane Cassandra had stuck. As he walked along the water's edge, he saw that the storm's frenzied waves, howling winds and torrid rains had washed thousands of starfish up onto the beach. They lay stranded on the sand, in danger of dying from the sun's relentless rays beating down on them. Just then he noticed a lone figure at the other end of the beach, stooping and standing, stooping and standing, again and again. As he approached the figure he realized it was a woman, and that she was picking up starfish one by one, and throwing them back into the water.

When he was near enough to speak to the woman, he said to her, "Look at how many hundreds of starfish there are drying on the sand. How do you think that what you are doing can possibly make a difference?"

Once again she bent down, picked up another starfish, and as she tossed it into the ocean, she replied simply: "It makes a difference to this one."