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 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 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."
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