Story - 1,000 marbles

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's thequiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's theunbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hoursof a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup ofcoffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as atypical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seemsto 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 inorder to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I cameacross an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a goldenvoice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcastingbusiness. He was telling whomeverhe was talking with something about "a thousand marbles." I was intriguedand stopped to listen to what he had to say."Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure theypay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and yourfamily so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixtyor seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed yourdaughter's "dance recital" he continued. "Let me tell you something thathas helped me keep 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 averageperson lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and somelive 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 thenumber of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime.Now, stickwith 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 anydetail," he went on, "and by that time I had lived through overtwenty-eight hundred Saturdays." "I got to thinking that if I lived to beseventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I wentto a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up havingto visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home andput them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shacknext to my gear.""Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown itaway. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on thereally important things in life. There is nothing like watching your timehere 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 mylovely wife out forbreakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container.I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given alittle extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little moretime.""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. This is a 75 Year old Man,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 theantenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams towork 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 to breakfast." "What brought this on?" sheasked with a smile. "Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time sincewe spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop ata toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles...A friend sent this to me, so I to you, my friend.And so, as one smart bear once said.."If you live to be a hundred, I wantto live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live withoutyou." - Winnie the Pooh.