1000 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 conversation. 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

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 onthis 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 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."

Written by Jeffrey Davis Copyright 1999 Used With Permission