Tossing Back Starfish Minute

You can't save the world, but you can help individuals wherever you are.

I was walking along an ocean beach one hot summer day. In the distance, I saw a man who was doing a strange dance, bending over again and again. As I got closer, I saw that he was picking up starfish that had washed up on the shore and was throwing them back.
I asked him, "Why are you throwing those starfish into the sea?"
He replied, "The tide is going out, the sun is hot, and if I don't, they will die here."
I asked him why he was doing this since the beach was miles long and there were thousands of starfish and the few he threw back wouldn't make any difference.

The man paused with a starfish in his hand. He looked at it, then looked out at the ocean. Then, he tossed the starfish out and said, 'Made a difference to that one.'