Making A Difference

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything here, so bear with me while I get this machine started up… *readies chainsaw*

“There was a man who was walking along a sandy beach where thousands of starfish had been washed up on the shore. As he looked down the beach he noticed a boy picking the starfish one by one and throwing them back into the ocean. He got closer and he called out, “Good morning! What are you doing?” The boy paused, looked up and replied, “Throwing starfish in the ocean. If I don’t throw them back in they will die. “The man then said, “Don’t you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it? You can’t possibly make a difference.” The boy listened politely. Then he bent down, picked another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves. He looked at the man and said, “It made a difference for that one.”

– Author Unknown

via A Regurgitation of the Mind.

Let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there was this guy. This guy had the whole world on front of him — he wasn’t particularly good looking, but he seemed to have a decent bee in his bonnet, and he was always willing to apply himself. Like everyone else, he had experienced both the highs and lows of life — but being one to take things in his stride he barely bent down to pick up the pieces before he was on his way again. He had a good portion of his future all planned out, and everything was peachy.
Then life happened.
Fast forward a few years — that same guy is suddenly a lot less sure of himself, where’s he’s going, and what he’s going to do when he gets there. It’s almost as if things have just started unravelling over time, almost as if there’s suddenly a whole lot less people on his team.
The thing is, this guy still wants to do something worthwhile.
He still wants to make a difference, he’s just not sure how.