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A
Thousand Marbles
Please take a couple
of minutes to read this. It will change your life...
A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the basement
with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper
in the other. 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. 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."
Please pass this on so
that it will change someone else's life too...
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