The MAMF August 2025 Banner

The focus of MAMF for August 2025 is kindness and humanitarianism.

When Dr. Circe Olson Woessner and I were discussing what to put in this month’s banner, she brought up “The Star Thrower,” by Loren Eisely. His essay inspired many versions of a story about a boy rescuing star fish on a beach full of stranded star fish. There were far too many for him to rescue them all, and a man walking on the beach pointed out that as such his efforts were pointless and didn’t make a difference. The boy replied that his efforts made all the  difference for the ones he saved.

The point of that story is that no act of kindness is ever wasted, as Aesop said so long ago. Every little thing we do to help anyone is time and effort well spent, because it makes a difference for the recipient of our kindness.

We need to stop thinking in terms of grand gestures and focus on the good that we can do for the people and creatures in our immediate path. When we think in terms of grand gestures, we can become overwhelmed by the scope of our own expectations of ourselves. That can in turn cause us to decide that it just isn’t our gift, and to leave it up to someone else who is able to do good deeds on a larger scope.

If all of us–every last one of us–were to focus on small acts of kindness every day, we would collectively accomplish so much more than a few individuals or organizations making grand gestures on a larger scope.

John Wesley famously said that we should:

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”

On the first floor of my apartment building is an elderly woman who has placed a small shelter, food, and water for a stray cat in our neighborhood we all call “Rusty.” He is a crotchety, crusty old alley cat who won’t let anyone except her near him. He tolerates the rest of us, and seems grateful that we let him hang around. My downstairs neighbor did a small thing that made a huge difference in Rusty’s quality of life.

In the fictional account of the star thrower, a little boy did a small thing that made a huge difference in a starfish’s life.

What small thing could you do this summer that would make a big difference in someone’s life? Whether that someone is an animal or a human being, your small act of kindness will not be wasted; and it will make your summer so much sweeter.

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