“Keep on saving the world, one person at a time.” One of my best friends often says this to me at the end of a conversation, and it occurs to me that this concept is at the heart of some of my discomfort around the NYT article.
There’s a story in which the tides deposit thousands of starfish on the sand. A lone man is walking along, picking up starfish one at a time and tossing them back into the water. An observer points out that so many are stranded that the man’s efforts are a waste of time: “You can’t throw them all back into the water. What you’re doing won’t make a difference.”
And as the man tosses another into the water, he replies, “It made a difference to that one.”
I was honored and grateful when a grad school mentor took me aside and urged me to pursue a doctorate. At that time, Texas Wesleyan did not have a PhD program for counselors, so it wasn’t a sales pitch. He spoke to me frankly about what he saw in me.
I responded by saying that the work necessary to obtain a doctorate, such as leading research projects, did not interest me. I told him I wanted to roll up my sleeves and get down to the business of helping people one at a time. And that’s what I’ve done.
So I’ve realized that while the potential growth of PLACE is a bit uncomfortable, if we need our program to accommodate more hurting parents, we will manage to make it so. Come what may, we will do our best to help more starfish back into the water.
