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 atypical 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. 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 my workshop next to
the radio. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and throw 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 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,
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."
--
Author Unknown
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