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. 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."
Work like you don't need the money...
Love like you've never been hurt...
Dance like nobody's watching...