FOODFORTHOUGHT

A THOUSAND MARBLES
Author Unknown
November 7, 2011

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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