1000 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 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 whomever 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.
"No, 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 sack 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 focus 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 that 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....
