One Thousand Marbles

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
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 nuch

It's hard to believe a young fellow should have to work
sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet.
to bad you missed your daughter's dance recital."

 "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  
"One 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
3900 which is the number of Saturdays that the averag
person has in their entire lifetime

. Now stick withme 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

One 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.

EverySaturday 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

"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 that we can all use is... a little extra 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,
 
 
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  this
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."

 Copyright © 1999, Jeff Davis, N9AVG

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Midi

Weekend in New England

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