All I can say after reading this is thanks for passing it along!
Kevin V.
WFO Herb wrote:
>
> 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 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."
>
> HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND AND MAY ALL SATURDAYS BE SPECIAL
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