Starfish

I admitted to Stephen that I have been having "moments of spirituality" lately. That was probably a mistake, cuz if anything, these moments have been quite fleeting and quite private, and I am in no position to describe the moon.

Several of these moments, though, have been related to work and there is an essay by Loren Eisley that captures the passion and love I've been feeling lately. Here's the short essay:

A Single Starfish

One day an old man was walking along the beach. It was low tide, and the sand was littered with thousands of stranded starfish that the water had carried in and then left behind. The man began walking very carefully so as not to step on any of the beautiful creatures. Since the animals still seemed to be alive, he considered picking some of them up and putting them back in the water, where they could resume their lives.

The man knew the starfish would die if left on the beach's dry sand but he reasoned that he could not possibly help them all, so he chose to do nothing and continued walking.

Soon afterward, the man came upon a small child on the beach who was frantically throwing one starfish after another back into the sea. The old man stopped and asked the child, "What are you doing?"

"I'm saving the starfish," the child replied.

"Why waste your time?... There are so many you can't save them all so what does is matter?" argued the man.

Without hesitation, the child picked up another starfish and tossed the starfish back into the water... "It matters to this one," the child explained.

I don’t think of this story and then compare it to my life in the obvious way by pretending that each student is one starfish. I don’t think my teaching work “saves” any of them like that. But I often think about each day as a starfish. I can’t possibly effect a drastic enough change to get this little person all the way back to the sea—but I can make a difference today. I can ensure that they are well taught, well disciplined, and well loved today. Which is no easy task, when you remember that there are twenty-two students in my care. And despite the daunting task of changing a life, or the daunting task of throwing back every starfish, I believe this day counts. This one day, and every single day, for all twenty-two of these children, really counts. And maybe, maybe, maybe, there’s a chance that some of these baby starfish are learning to crawl and maybe some of them are absorbing enough love to crawl to the sea on their own one day.