It seems like everywhere you look these days, there are people or environmental issues in need of help. And most of us can point to a particular cause (or perhaps many causes) where we’d like to lend our support, either in the form of money or in giving of our time. But the need is so great, and the ability of any one person to make a difference is so limited, that it’s easy to become discouraged. Ira Riklis certainly feels that way at times, even though he and his family have been blessed with wealth and resources.
But the worst thing we can do in times like those is to give into discouragement and do nothing. When Ira Riklis begins to feel those feelings, he turns his mind to the parable of the starfish that he learned years ago from his Rabbi. In the story, a man on a long, lonely stretch of beach sees a young boy who, as he walks along skirting the edges of the waves, is picking up starfish and throwing them back into the water. Thousands of these ocean dwellers have been cast ashore by a storm. Left ashore, they will die. But the man points out that there are so many that there’s little hope of making any real difference. At that, the boy picks up another and throws it to safety, then turns to the man and says, “I made a difference to that one.”