ONCE UPON A TIME, there was a wise elder who went to the sea to contemplate.  The elder saw a child reaching into the sand and gently throwing something into the sea.  The elder called out "Aloha!  What are you doing?"  The child looked up and replied, "Throwing starfish into the sea."  "WHY?" the Elder asked.  The child smiled brightly and replied, "The sun is up, and the tide is going out.  If I don't throw them in, they will die."  "But there are miles of beach and starfish all along it.  You can't possibly make a difference!"  The child listened politely, picked up another starfish, threw it gently into the sea, and exuberantly declared, "I made a difference for that one."

The Tale of the Starfish -inspired by the work of Loren Eiseley.  Ours is an edited version of a story found at www.hawaiianlanguage.com