You Can Change the World

Every Saturday Afternoon I take a jog around a place near my house.  There’s a lake located in one corner of the place.  Each time I jog by this lake, I see the same elderly man sitting at the water’s edge with a small metal cage sitting beside him.

This past Saturday my curiosity got the best of me, so I stopped jogging and walked over to him.  As I got closer, I realized that the metal cage was in fact a small trap.  There were three turtles, unharmed, slowly walking around the base of the trap.  He had a fourth turtle in his lap that she was carefully scrubbing with a spongy brush.

“Hello,” I said.  “I see you here every Saturday Afternoon.  If you don’t mind my nosiness, I’d love to know what you’re doing with these turtles.”

He smiled.  “I’m cleaning off their shells,” she replied.  “Anything on a turtle’s shell, like algae or scum, reduces the turtle’s ability to absorb heat and impedes its ability to swim.  It can also corrode and weaken the shell over time.”

“Wow!  That’s really nice of you!” I said.

He went on: “I spend a couple of hours each Saturday morning, relaxing by this lake and helping these little guys out.  It’s my own strange way of making a difference.”

“But don’t most freshwater turtles live their whole lives with algae and scum hanging from their shells?” I asked.

“Yep, sadly, they do,” He replied.

I scratched my head.  “Well then, don’t you think your time could be better spent?  I mean, I think your efforts are kind and all, but there are fresh water turtles living in lakes all around the world.  And 99% of these turtles don’t have kind people like you to help them clean off their shells.  So, no offense… but how exactly are your localized efforts here truly making a difference?”

The man giggled aloud.  He then looked down at the turtle in his lap, scrubbed off the last piece of algae from its shell, and said, “Sweetie, if this little guy could talk, he’d tell you I just made all the difference in the world.”

The moral:  You can change the world – maybe not all at once, but one person, one animal, and one good deed at a time.  Wake up every morning and pretend like what you do make a difference.  It does.