Quick help needed remembering illustration....

[Wilson L. Deaton]

A guy was on a beach picking up stranded ???? and throwing them back into the water. Another guy comes along and says, you can't save all those ????s. The first guy helps another ???? and replies, "I saved that one" or "I made a difference to that one..." (or something like that).

What was the subject of this story? Clams or what?

Wilson

[G R 'Scott' Cundiff]

Did a search on Google for +starfish +"made a difference" and found about a thousand webpages with the story. Here it is:

Once a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see a person going back and forth between the surf's edge and and the beach. Back and forth this person went. As the man approached he could see that there were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide.
The man was stuck by the the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish. As he approached the person continued the task of picking up starfish one by one and throwing them into the surf.
As he came up to the person he said, "You must be crazy. There are thousands of miles of beach covered with starfish. You can't possibly make a difference." The person looked at the man. He then stooped down and pick up one more starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He turned back to the man and said, "It sure made a difference to that one!"

A guy was on a beach picking up stranded ???? and throwing them back into the water. Another guy comes along and says, you can't save all those ????s. The first guy helps another ???? and replies, "I saved that one" or "I made a difference to that one..." (or something like that).

What was the subject of this story? Clams or what?

Wilson

[Wilson L. Deaton]

My daughter wanted to tell the story in a speech tomorrow....

Wilson

[Dave McClung]

It makes a great illistration, but there always has to be a skeptic in the crowd. Today the skeptic is me.

Star Fish don't crawl up on the beach. Sometimes a dead starfish will wash up on the beach, but usually the live starfish that are found along the beach are there because of an unusually low tide. It happens along our beach three or four times a year. When there is an unusually low tide, the water can recede and leave some of the star fish out of the water along the beach. The truth is that they can live just fine as long as they remain moist. The tide will soon come back in and they will once again be under the water. A person who picks up the starfish to throw them back in probably does more damage than good. The best thing to do for the star fish is just to leave it alone and let nature do what it does best.

Come to think of it, that may make an illustration too. Many times when we try to do good without knowing all the facts, we do more harm than good. Investigate first!!!

[Wilson L. Deaton]

It makes a great illistration, but there always has to be a skeptic in the crowd. .... Investigate first!!!


Dave,

I don't actually believe that tortoises and hares run races either but the fable makes a great story and makes a great point. I think this particular story falls into that category... The listener walks away have gotten the point and not really caring much about the biological realities of starfish.

(I will make the disclaimer here that when I tell a "story" such as this one I let it be known that it is a just that, a story!")

Wilson

[Dave McClung]

I agree. The story makes a good point and is easily understood. I wouldn't hesitate to use it either.