247E-Book Story: All the Difference in The World

All the Difference in The World


Every Sunday morning I take a light jog around
a park near my home. There’s a lake located in
one corner of the park. Each time I jog by this
lake, I see the same elderly woman sitting at
the water’s edge with a small metal cage sitting
beside her.
This past Sunday my curiosity got the best of
me, so I stopped jogging and walked over to
her. 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. She had a fourth turtle in her
lap that she was carefully scrubbing with a
spongy brush.
“Hello,” I said. “I see you here every Sunday
morning. If you don’t mind my nosiness, I’d
love to know what you’re doing with these
turtles.”
She 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 exclaimed.
She went on: “I spend a couple of hours each
Sunday 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,” she 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 woman giggled aloud. She then looked
down at the turtle in her 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 makes a difference. It does.