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The Nation's Pulse
My Starfish Story
An inspirational story reconsidered.
My son being one of the smart kids, I am obliged to attend a lot of high school functions. All these events tend to feature the obligatory inspirational-type speaker (a politician, lawyer, or clergyman) who unfailingly parrots the same message. And it’s not the virtues of capitalism, trust me. Rather, it’s some version of the old saw that “to whom much is given much is expected.”
But don’t expect much in the way of variety. Nearly all the speakers begin by telling the same tale. I’m guessing you have heard “The Starfish Story.” It’s the one that begins with the speaker strolling down a beach when he comes across a fellow chucking starfish back into the ocean. The speaker approaches and says something to the effect that there are tens of thousands of starfish washed up on the beach. He can’t possibly make a difference. The man patiently smiles and skips another fish into the salty brine. “Made a difference for that one,” he says.
At this point my son will glance at me from the stage and roll his eyes. We are both having the same thought: “I’ll tell you what kind of difference you made. You just deprived some starving baby seagull of its dinner! And I didn’t see you helping those poor jellyfish that washed ashore. Is it because they are not as pretty as sea stars and hurt like hell when they sting you?” My son is only 17; he can look forward to rolling his eyes through “The Starfish Story” for many years to come.
I have never been asked to give one of these inspirational speeches, for obvious reasons, but that doesn’t keep me from imagining what I might say. Being a natural-born contrarian, I am inclined to view with a jaundiced eye the notion we can improve the world. I might quote Voltaire: “We shall leave the world as foolish and wicked as we found it.” Or Samuel Beckett: “The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops.”
Or I might really mix things up by reading from Loren Eiseley’s original essay, “The Star Thrower,” which I happened to come across the other day:
In a pool of sand and silt a starfish had thrust its arms up stiffly and was holding its body away from the stifling mud.
“It’s still alive,” I ventured.
“Yes,” he said, and with a quick yet gentle movement he picked up the star and spun it over my head and far out into the sea. It sunk in a burst of spume, and the waters roared once more.
…”There are not many who come this far,” I said, groping in a sudden embarrassment for words. “Do you collect?”
“Only like this,” he said softly, gesturing amidst the wreckage of the shore. “And only for the living.” He stooped again, oblivious of my curiosity, and skipped another star neatly across the water. “The stars,” he said, “throw well. One can help them.”
…”I do not collect,” I said uncomfortably, the wind beating at my garments. “Neither the living nor the dead. I gave it up a long time ago. Death is the only successful collector.”
Eiseley’s parable is Darwinian in its stark “Nature, red in tooth and claw” conviction. Quite another thing from its sentimental successor.
Fortunately for thousands of after dinner speakers, Eiseley later undergoes a philosophical shift. He dumps Nietzsche for Oprah. As a scientist Eiseley knows nature’s inclination is to thin the herd. At the same time, he recognizes man often contradicts his Darwinian dictates (contraception, anyone?). He knows man can be altruistic and compassionate even to strangers, that we can, in that horrible clichéd phrase, make a difference:
“But I do love the world,” I whispered…. “I love its small ones, the things beaten in the strangling surf, the bird, singing, which flies and falls and is not seen again…I love the lost ones, the failures of the world.” It was like the renunciation of my scientific heritage.
Eiseley then joins the star thrower on the beach, and concludes: “It was men as well as starfish that we sought to save.”
About the Author
Christopher Orlet writes from St. Louis.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (15) | Leave a comment
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73 w/a bad knee| 4.7.11 @ 8:53AM
I am inspired.
You have inspired me to say no to "social engineering schemes."
I am going to tear up my Medicare Card and pay all my medical expenses out of pocket.
Thanks for the inspiration, Christopher!
Who Knows?| 4.7.11 @ 9:20AM
Ah, yes, Loren Eiseley.
Brings back memories.
I loved his volume of favorite writings, “The Star Thrower”, back in the 80’s, right after it came out.
By then I was a solid libertarian, at least, and didn’t think he was other than a realistic dude, who wrote beautifully.
Any way, as I look at his book right now, which came out in 1977, I’m totally amused by the blurb on the back by Ray Bradbury---
“The book will be read and cherished in 2001. It will go to the MOON and MARS with future generations. Loren Eiseley’s work changed my life.”
2001!!!
And, here we are, in 2011.
His “The Immense Journey”, from 1957, is still IMHO fabulous, and I may be “inspired” from this column to dip back into it.
Thanks Mr. Orley.
PCC| 4.7.11 @ 9:21AM
Dear Mr. Orlet,
To paraphrase the Latino gangster in the movie "Training Day" as he refers to the corrupt cop, Alonzo Harris, played by Denzel Washington:
"You are a low-down, dirty, ruthless vato. But I like it! I like it!"
John Navratil| 4.7.11 @ 9:52AM
The difference lies in the individual making the difference and the compulsion of individuals to make a difference.
One the one hand the kid can say "you just threw my breakfast into the see", and on the other the kid hears "get used to it."
John Navratil| 4.7.11 @ 9:53AM
My typing is horrible... it was "you just threw my breakfast into the SEA"... I need an editor.
Jeremiah| 4.7.11 @ 9:55AM
I am often called as a speaker at various events. A few years back I was speaking to a group of college students in the St. Louis area about, of all things, environmental sustainability. I began the talk by asking them whether they really wanted to do good - or just to be fashionable. Then I went on and explained that if they want to increase forestation in the world, they should support logging companies and protest against the people who protest against loggers. They were aghast, but I brought out the statistics showing that almost all the expansion in forest in this country in the last century has come from logging companies replanting.
I explained that if their university had required they get a simple understanding of economics - and if they had thought long enough to see the incentives involved, this would not surprise them. But the fact that from the "environmentalists" you get a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing while all the new growth comes from loggers...the fact that that surprises young idealists should be sufficient evidence to them that they need to think more, shout less, and be brave enough to do the right thing instead of the fashionable thing.
mike daniels| 4.7.11 @ 9:57AM
Read Atlas Shrugged. Forced charity and "caring" only provides a platform for those who do the forcing to operate and enrich themselves. Rand nailed it way before Codevilla's "ruling class" analysis
WRJonas | 4.7.11 @ 11:57AM
I am at the age to which the author alludes.
This story only applies to those who have experienced the sting of a scorpion . Sometimes I catch them in a jar and release them far from my house. It is very difficult ,knowing they will return perhaps to sting me but it is increasingly difficult to step on them or smash them. It is hard to explain.
Steve A| 4.7.11 @ 12:19PM
Not really. You love life & value it more now. Any life.
CalMark| 4.7.11 @ 2:16PM
The leftist trolls are out in force today!
All over this site.
Obama's Facebook "fake people by committee" are really "earning" their pay from our tax dollars.
Occam's Tool| 4.7.11 @ 3:04PM
I always like to recall "primum non nocere." That's really hard to do sometimes, you know?
John II| 4.7.11 @ 4:10PM
It would have to be "primum noli nocere," Occie, but the wisdom is well taken with or without the correct Latin grammar.
Anyhow, thanks for your kind remarks yesterday. Regarding Herbert Lom--yes, he did a lot more than Dreyfus, although he seems to have upstaged himself with that role--he certainly upstaged Peter Sellars.
Among many, many of his film characters, my favorites are the thug Louis/Mr. Harvey in "The Ladykillers" (1955--the better version, opposite Alec Guinness and, coincidentally, Peter Sellars), the Cilician pirate Tigranes in "Spartacus" (1960), the sinister Muslim fanatic Yussuf in "El Cid" (1961), an elegant Captain Nemo in "Mysterious Island" (also 1961), and any of his roles in the often stylish Hammer horror flicks of the 60's and 70's.
I think he's still alive. He'd be in his nineties by now. What happened to the direct reply button in this site?
And now back to . . . well, back to class preparation. No flicks until later.
RCV| 4.7.11 @ 7:16PM
Ah, Inspector Dreyfus! I also liked Lom as the Neurologist in The Dead Zone, one of the few Stephen King films ever worth watching. He is still alive and is indeed in his 90s. Don't think he's done anything since the early 90s though.
Mick| 4.13.11 @ 5:21AM
I found this story so inspiring, it really left a mark on me. Thanks.
canvas prints
Creative Recreation | 8.10.11 @ 10:40PM
is good