Why the Starfish??

People always ask me, why a starfish tattoo? Couple of reasons I suppose....
One is that it is a symbol for the Virgin Mary in Christian mythology, which I always just thought was cool...I'm Mary...haha. Second, I'm a diver and I'm always happiest when I'm on a boat or in the ocean. Mainly though it was inspired by a story called "the Star Thrower" by Loren Eiseley, a scientist and a naturalist poet I greatly admire. I read it a long long time ago but it always stuck in my mind and has helped crystalize my personal philosophy to life and service. The following is a paraphrased version...

"Once upon a time, there was a wise man, much like Eiseley himself, who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had the habit of walking along the beach before he began his work.

One day he was walking along the shore; as he looked down the beach, he saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself to think of someone who would dance to the day, so he began to walk faster to catch up. As he got closer, he saw that it was a young man and the young man wasn't dancing, but instead, he was reaching down to the shore, picking up something and very gently throwing it into the ocean. As he got closer he called out, "Good morning! What are you doing?" The young man paused, looked up and replied, "Throwing Starfish into the ocean, the sun is up and the tide is going out and if I don't throw them in they'll die." "But young man," he replied "don't you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and Starfish all along it, you can't possibly make a difference!"

The young man listened politely, then bent down, picked up another Starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves. "It made a difference for that one" he said before continuing down the beach. His response surprised the man, he didn't know how to reply, so instead he turned away and walked back to the cottage to begin his writings.

All day long as he wrote, the image of that young man haunted him; he tried to ignore it, but the vision persisted. Finally, late in the afternoon, he realized that he the scientist, he the poet, had missed the essential nature of the young man's actions. Because he realized that what the young man was doing was choosing not to be an observer in the universe and watch it pass by, but was choosing to be an actor in the universe and make a difference. He was embarrassed. That night he went to bed, troubled. When morning came, he awoke knowing that he had to do something; so he got up, put on his clothes, went to the beach and found the young man; and with him spent the rest of the morning throwing Starfish into the ocean."

~ Loren Eiseley

Me at Torres del Paine in Chile, my birthday, December 2005