Do Your Part

A story was once told to me years ago by a dear friend. It is a story of helping out the world on whatever scale you can. The story goes as follows:

A old man walked out to a beach. This particular beach was miles long in either direction. However, in front of him was the only other person on the entire beach. It was a young boy. The old man did not notice until he walked a little closer to the shoreline that the beach was covered with hundreds if not thousands of starfish. The little boy was by the water throwing the starfish back into the water. One by one. He watched for a couple minutes as the boy went on throwing the starfish back. The old man thinking to himself, that the boy had not even made a dent in the amount of starfish left on the beach, he decided to go talk the boy out of the useless activity. As the old man approached the boy he hollered "son what are you doing!?" the boy replied "saving the starfish by throwing them back into the ocean." The old man became aggravated and said, "you could never save them all, it's not worth it!" The little boy keep doing what he was doing and and the next one he picked up he said back to the old man, "to this starfish it is worth it." He picked up the next and said the same thing. The old man got the young boys point and left the boy on the beach to save as many starfish as he could.

This story is about doing what you can to make a difference. The world is filled with people, animals, and other things that could use a little help. This boy was young and saw starfish drying up and dying on the beach. He did not think he could help them all. He knew he would not be able to save each and everyone. However, he knew he could help some of them and he did! If each of us take a little time out of our day to help out in some way this world would be a better place. That sounds very cliche I know but the fact is that so many of us go on with our days without a thought other than that about ourselves or someone really close to us. Branch out. How and why anyone could forget about their fellow human beings, I will never know. Recession, depression. NO. There are people out there who are having some bad times, yes. Lost jobs, maybe a house. But there are also people who never had a decent job (not because they did not try, just never had the opportunity), never had a place to call home. I have met some of these people. I worked for toys for tots (community service for a speeding ticket), soup kitchens, and department of family services for Connecticut. Give a dollar each and every time you come across someone who needs it (it's a dollar), donate clothes or books or toys (not for a tax deduction but because it will make someone elses life better), work for a charity for an hour of time each week or month, or every six months. The fact is that every little bit counts. Be that young boy! Be that young boy more often!