Loren Eisely tells the story about an author who's on vacation by the shore and he decides to take a break from his writing and walk along the beach. The author sees from a distance a person who seems like he is dancing, and since he wants to find out if that is the case or not, he approaches the man. When he gets close to "the dancer" he realizes that it a young man and that is not dancing; he is throwing things from the shore into the ocean.

The author gets closer still and discovers that the young man is picking up seashells from the beach where thousands of seashells are stranded due to low tide, and he throws them back, one by one, into the ocean.

The author asks him why he is doing such a strenuous task and the young man answers that if he doesn't, the seashells will most likely die.

With a scornful laugh at the young man, the author informs him that the beach is several miles long and that there are thousands of stranded seashells so helping a few of them won't make a difference.

The young man takes a pause and thinks about what the author said. Then he picks up a new seashell from the beach and throws it back into the ocean and says…

"It makes a big difference…For this one!"