The Child and the Starfish.

Once upon a time there was a man who would walk along the beach every morning thinking about how to help the world.

One day as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a figure moving back and forth, rhythmically dancing to the day.

This gave him great pleasure, so he began to walk faster to catch up. As he got closer, he saw that it was a child and the child wasn't dancing, but instead was reaching down to the shore, picking up something and very gently throwing it into the ocean.

When he got closer he called out, 'Good morning! What are you doing?'

The child looked up and replied with simple joy, 'Throwing starfish in the ocean.'

The man looked puzzled and said: 'I guess I should have asked, why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?'

'The sun is up and the tide is going out. And if I don't throw them in they'll die.'

'But, don't you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can't possibly make a difference!' said the man.

The child listened politely, then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea past the breaking waves and said with a smile...

'... but I made a difference to that one'.

This is a parable quoted in a blog I read just now, which is linked below. I don’t know who wrote it originally.

http://joshtbk.wordpress.com/

You should read this. Some of the posts are long, but all are moving, inspiring, heart breaking, sickening, terrifying. All of them with take you out of your comfort zone, if you really think about them.

This blog was written a man I met while he was in Chiang Mai. He’s trying to be the child.

So which one are you?

Spare Change.

The school has been looking into getting me a work permit and a teachers visa; it’s what the rest of the teachers have, and it more appropriately reflects what I’m doing out here than my current documents. I would have had to get a new visa anyway, as mine runs out in December. At least 4 months too short. We’re hoping that it can all be done in country, down in Bangkok, which would make things a lot easier. But the visa commission wants applicants to have at least 25 days on their current visas, so before I can head south I need to do a border run; go to the border, hop over, get a stamp and come back. It’s part of the Thai visa system, all required for me to remain here legally. So on Wednesday I got on a minibus and headed for Burma.