starfish

A man was walking down the beach at sunset. As he walked along, he saw a boy in the distance. He noticed this boy kept leaning down, picking up something and throwing it out into the water, again and again.
As he approached even closer, he noticed that the boy was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach. He was throwing them back into the water, one by one.
Puzzled, the man approached the boy and said, "Good Evening. I was wondering what you are doing."
"I'm throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see, it's low tide, and all these starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If I don't throw them back into the ocean, they'll die."
"But, there must be thousands of starfish on this beach. You can't possibly get to all of them. And, don't you realize this is probably happening on hundreds of beaches all up and down this coast. Can't you see that you can't possibly make a difference?"
The boy bent down and picked up yet another starfish, and threw it back into the ocean. With a smile he replied, "Made a difference to that one!"

This is one of my favorites. I have no idea who first wrote it, but the story is old and recirculates on emails periodically. I try to regard it as part of my philosophy of life.