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The Importance of One

A young man,
walking along the beach at dawn,
noticed an old man ahead of him
picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea.

Catching up with the man,
the youth asked what he was doing.
The answer was that the stranded starfish
would die if left until the morning sun.

"But the beach goes on for miles,
and there are millions of starfish"
countered the young man.

"How can your effort make any difference?"

The old man looked at the starfish in his hand
and then threw it to safety in the waves.

"It makes a difference to this one," he said.