My Starfish Story

On my most recent vacation, in September, I took some time to explore Santa Rosa National Park, which is in the northwest corner of the country, almost in Nicaragua. A 4am wake-up and 3 buses away from Monteverde, I was in an entirely different ecosystem, less green, more sun, and the preferred home of Costa Rica's national animal, the white tailed deer.

Bus station in Liberia

The majority of the time, I had the park’s trails entirely to myself. I saw...

...monkeys,

...cactus growing like vines,

...a completely empty beach,

...birds,

...crabs,

...interesting driftwood,

and a starfish with a pair of gimpy legs.

When I saw the starfish, I was reminded of the starfish story (click to read the story) that my West Philly roommates Alice, Dana and Maya told me when they were in City Year. It's an inspirational story about a little girl who wants to make a difference. Smiling to myself, and channeling that little-girl enthusiasm, I picked up the starfish and threw it towards the Pacific. Unfortunately, I am not a very good throw, and it landed immediately in the crashing waves. So, realizing that rather than actually helping this little guy to get back into the ocean and live a happy starfish life, I was in fact only prolonging the hour of his death by waves onto sand to dry up in the hot Guanacaste sun. Still imagining pig-tails and good intentions, I found him again in the crashing waves and picked him up to throw him to safety. As I flung him, his leg flew off, and he plopped a few feet in front of me. Not wanting to make his situation worse, and hoping that starfish can regenerate their legs, I decided to move on.

I am not sure what the moral of this story is.