The 1000 Marbles.
Posted by: root <root@...>
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 kitchen 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 volume up on my radio in order to listen to a
Saturday morning talk show. I heard an older sounding chap with
a golden voice.
You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the
broadcasting business himself.
He was talking about "a thousand marbles" to someone named "Tom."
I was intrigued and sat down 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 roundup 1000
marbles. I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear
plastic container right here in my workshop next to the radio.
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 God has blessed me with a little extra
time to be with my loved ones......
"It was nice to talk to you Tom, I hope you spend more time with
your loved ones, and I hope to meet you again someday. Have a
good morning!"
You could have heard a pin drop when he finished. Even the
show's moderator didn't have anything to say for a few moments.
I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to do
some work that morning, then go to the gym. 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," I said. "It has 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."