Even Sisyphean Tasks Still Need Doing

The Starfish Story…

A young man is walking along the beach after a storm, and sees thousands and thousands of starfish have been washed ashore.

Further along he sees an old man, walking slowly and stooping often, picking up one starfish after another and tossing each one gently into the ocean. 

“Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?,” he asks. 

“Because the sun is up and the tide is going out and if I don’t throw them further in they will die.” 

“But, old man, don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it!
You can’t possibly save them all, you can’t even save one-tenth of them. In fact, even if you work all day, your efforts won’t make any difference at all.”

The old man listened calmly and then bent down to pick up another starfish and threw it into the sea. “It made a difference to that one."

h/t Matt G via OldNFO