I can’t remember where I first heard this story, but it has stayed with me since I was a child.
An older man was walking along a beach after thousands of starfish had been left stranded on the sand. In the distance, he saw a boy bending down, picking them up one by one, and throwing them back into the ocean.
The older man called out, “Boy, you can’t possibly save them all. There are too many. What you’re doing won’t matter.”
The boy picked up another starfish and threw it back into the water.
“It mattered to that one.”
Then he reached for another.
“And that one too.”
That story has never left me, because I think it says something important about the way we look at change. When people talk about saving the world, they often speak as if one person is too small to matter, as if impact only counts when it is massive, visible, or undeniable. But the truth is that every life we touch is a world of its own.
I have not spoken much about my spiritual beliefs, but I do believe this: I am here for a reason.
I believe I am here to be the champion of the rejected. To heal the wounded. To be a light for people who have lost their way in the dark.
But no one is meant to carry that burden alone. One person throwing starfish back into the ocean matters, but imagine what happens when others kneel beside them.
We must fight in the ways we know how. Through truth. Through courage. Through art. Through compassion. Through refusing to abandon one another. We have to find our fellow warriors and hold the line together.
Too much light will make you blind.
And too much darkness will swallow us whole.