1000 MARBLES

First published in The Trumpet's July, 2002 edition.

Including today (Saturday, June 29th) my count is 791 marbles.  I have young kids - 13 and 16, and Carole, Jenny and Eric have a "family  day" planned - I hope to use today's marble well.

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of 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 marble". 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. 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 had 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 way.

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 to get your priorities straight. Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out. 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 litter 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. "Come on 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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