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"A Thousand Marbles"
The 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. 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."
"75 year 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. 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 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."
--By Jeffrey Davis
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When I despair, I remember that all through history, the
way of truth and love has always won. There have been
tyrants and murderers and, for a time they can seem
invincible, but in the end, they always fall.
Think of this. Always"
~ Mahatma Gandhi ~
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