1000 Marbles
he older I get, the more I enjoy
Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the
first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work.
Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.
A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the basement
shack with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the
other. What began as a typical Saturday morning, turned into one of those
lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about
it.
I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the
band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along
the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a
golden voice. You know the kind...he sounded like he should be in the
broadcasting business. He was telling whoever he was talking with something
about 'a thousand marbles'.
I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had
to say. "Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure
they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your
family so much. It's hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty
or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter's
dance recital." He continued, "let me tell you something Tom, something that
has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities." And that's when he
began to explain his theory of 'a thousand marbles.'
"You see, I sat down one day and did a little
arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some
live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five
years."
"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with
3900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their
entire lifetime. Now stick with me Tom, I'm getting to the important part."
"It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think
about all this in any detail," he went on, "and by that time I had lived
through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived
to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy."
"So I went to a toy store and bought every single
marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round-up 1000
marbles. I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic
container right here in the shack next to my gear. Every Saturday since then, I
have taken one marble out and thrown it away."
"I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I
focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like
watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities
straight."
"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off
with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the
very last marble out of the container. I figure if I make it until next
Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can
all use is a little more time."
"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more
time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. 73 Old
Man, this is K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"
You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this
fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned
to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few
hams to work on the next club newsletter. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my
wife up with a kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids out to
breakfast." "What brought this on?" she asked with a smile. "Oh, nothing
special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the
kids. Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some
marbles."