Starfish

Many have heard of the Starfish story. Heck, i get reminded of it everytime i whine about my job. The Starfish story has a moral to it - That no matter how hopeless the situation seems (millions of starfish washed up on the beach!), you should still do something because your efforts matters to that particular one (it gains another shot at life), even though its might just seem like a trickle in the sea. But this story, while apt, trivialises the effort in saving a starfish. Pick up starfish, throw back into the sea only what, how difficult can it be?! That is why this story was chosen. Pick up starfish so easy, why you dont pick up?! Can save one life leh! A slightly more accurate version would go something like this:
Once a man was walking along the beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see a few cranes and barges, with groups of people frantically moving back and forth between the surf's edge and the beach. As the man approached, he could see that there were hundreds of whales stranded on the sand as a result of the natural action of the tide.
The man was struck by the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many whales. Many of them were sure to perish. As he approached the scene, the people down there continued about their seemingly impossible task.
As he arrived on the beach, he said, "All of you must be crazy. There are thousands of whales here. You can't possibly make a difference with your meagre supply of cranes and barges. The group of people looked at the man. They then proceeded to load one whale onto a barge, using one of the creaking cranes, bring it out to sea, before releasing the whale back into the rough seas. After 4 hours of herculean effort, upon returning back to shore, one of the crew turned back to the man and said, "It sure made a difference to that one!"