WR - Fwd: Story of A Thousand Marbles

[AngusDuncan at att.net]

I could not agree more. I too, had to forward this.
----------------------  Forwarded Message:  ---------------------
From:    "Carolyn Rivera" <c_a_rivera at hotmail.com>
To:      AngusDuncan at att.net, w.p.mondragon at worldnet.att.net, chasetwins at yahoo.com, kid_pl at hotmail.com, debandjer at mindspring.com, wwilson at tctwest.net, Jesse_murph at email.msn.com, riveraj at mindspring.net, mike_rivera79 at hotmail.com, MPMBOOKS at aol.com, padilla at futureone.com, seater at greenbar.com, shelleym at usa.net, wanda_camp at hotmail.com
Subject: Fwd: Story of A Thousand Marbles
Date:    Sat, 12 Aug 2000 16:19:32 MST

Have a happy weekend. Have to forward this on.


A Thousand 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 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 roundup 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."

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND AND MAY ALL SATURDAYS BE SPECIAL! :)


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