Starfish Service
“A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.
She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”
The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied,
“Well, I made a difference to that one!””
– adapted from the Star Thrower by Loren C. Eiseley
This article highlights the difference between service that helps one, and service that helps many. The man probably objected to the girl throwing starfish because he saw that, in the long run, she was only putting a “band-aid” on the problem, and not solving the problem’s root source.
Do you feel that “band-aid” service has a place in our society? Or is it most important to determine what the problem is and where it’s roots are and address the deeper issue of a problem?
March 20th, 2013 at 11:14 am
First off I love this story, maybe because I just love the beach, but anyways. I feel that band-aid service is perfectly ok and definitely has a place in society. I doesn’t matter how small of a difference you make, the fact is you’re making a difference! I think its all about having the right heart and mindset. She cared to save those starfish and ever though in the grand scheme of things she may have only been putting a little dent in a rather large problem but she started somewhere and she cared. A lot of times I feel with getting to the root of the problem its just a chore or some problem that needs to be solved but no care or love is put into the project. Yes getting to the root of the problem to potentially solve it, like maybe the sea water was overly saltily that month or what have you is always a good idea; but how many starfish will die stranded on the beach while we run all the test to figure out the problem. Band-aid service is about loving the animals, people, or things that are hurting at that very moment and trying to mend the situation quickly with love and affection. I rather be a band-aid servicer any day because possessing those raw emotion will always pay off in the long run.