Loren Eiseley
The young man had the habit of walking along the beach in the morning. He had been here often and he saw the beach as a place “littered with the debris of life” – shells, crabs, octopus, starfish, and such. The sea seemed to reject its offspring. The tiny breathing pores of the starfish became stuffed with sand and, if they could not get back to the sea, they died on the beach. In addition, scores of professional collectors descended on the beach at night and gathered as many shells, crabs, and starfish as they could get.
One early morning, the young man noticed a human figure at a distance. The person was gazing fixedly at something in the sand. Eventually, he picked up an object from the sand and threw it with force into the sea. The young man went nearer and saw that the person was an old man with a bronzed worn face. The young man also realized that it was live starfish that the old man was picking up and throwing into the sea.
The young man saw the next starfish the old man was picking up and said, “It’s still alive. Why are you throwing it into the sea?”
“The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw it in, it’ll die,” replied the old man. “It may still live if the offshore pull is strong enough.”
As the old man continued picking up and throwing more starfish into the sea, the young man asked him, “Are you a collector?”
“No,” answered the old man. “I only do what I am doing now. “The starfish throw well. One can help them.”
The young man was baffled. He told the old man, “But there are thousands of such starfish on this beach. And more will be washed ashore tomorrow. How can you help them all? How can you make any difference?”
The old man did not answer for a while. Then he picked up yet another starfish, threw it into the sea, and said, “At least, it made a difference to that one!”
Background: Different versions of this story can be found on the Internet, but the ending is generally the same. What is given here is my version. The story is based on the 14-page chapter entitled “The Star Thrower” in the book The Unexpected Universe written by Loren Eiseley (1907-1977), an American anthropologist, educator, philosopher, and natural science writer. Eiseley, however, did not end the story as in the popular versions. You can read the original here. You can also watch several video versions of the story on YouTube.
About the book The Unexpected Universe Eiseley’s friend and science fiction author Ray Bradbury wrote, “The book will be read and cherished in the year 2001. It will go to the Moon and Mars with future generations. Loren Eiseley’s work changed my life.” The starfish story does make an impact on most readers. The theme is of course similar to that of the earlier story published on this site: “I’ll be a humming bird. I’ll do the best I can.”
I agree. There was the Mullah Nazuruddin’s version of this in – ” I’ll be a humming bird. I’ll do the best I can.” We need these type of attitudes to demonstrate that we have our own businesses in this world beyond the routines. I am sure that many of us would have read Jonathan Livingston Seagull, authored by Richard Bach, which is an endeavouring story of a seagull that moves out, of normal seagulls fighting for food, to excel in flight techniques. While all the other gulls consider it to be a mad event, Jonathan achieves something that other gulls cannot and will not appreciate. This story also reveals the inner meaning to life, if one carefully observes the underlying tenor.