e3 : “entertainment, epistemology, empowerment.”

One morning, I went out for my daily sunrise walk on the beach.

Off in the distance, I could see someone pick something up off the beach,
wade a little ways into the ocean and then toss the object into the water.

Then, the person,
who appeared to be a small boy,
picked up another object and tossed it also into the sea.

He continued to do this tirelessly as I walked toward him.

As I approached,
I saw that he was picking up one of what looked to be one of a millionstarfish that had been washed up onto the shore..

I stopped and asked him why he was doing this.

The boy explained that the starfish were stranded,
churned up onto the shore due to an unexpected storm~
and that in another hour or two they would dry up in the mid-day sun and die.

He was saving their lives.

The innocence of youth,
I thought.

I told him that there were tens of thousands of starfish along the legnth of the beach,
and that he couldn’t possibly make a difference.

The child stopped and looked down,
as if to study the water that washed over our bare feet.

He walked over and picked up another starfish,
waded into the sea and tossed it in.

“Sir…?,” he said, pointing into the sea.

“Yes,” I answered.

His head tilted slightly…. and his eyes smiled brightly as he replied with his final thought:

“It made a difference for that one.”

~ Andy Thomas