1000
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
whomever 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 sack 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 focus 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 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 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....
Which Are You?
Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and
placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In one he placed
carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and the last he placed ground coffee
beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word.
The daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently waited, wondering what he was
doing. In about twenty minutes he and turned off the burners. He fished the
carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them a
bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.
Turning to her he asked. "Darling, what do you see?"
"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.
He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that
they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off
the shell, she observed the hard- boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the
coffee. She smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.
She humbly asked. "What does it mean Father?"
He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity, boiling water, but
each reacted differently.
The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. But after being subjected to
the boiling water, it softened and became weak.
The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid
interior. But after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became
hardened.
The ground coffee beans were unique however. After they were in the boiling
water, they had changed the water.
"Which are you," he asked his daughter. "When adversity knocks
on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean? "
How about you? Are you the carrot that seems hard, but with pain and adversity
do you wilt and become soft and lose your strength?
Are you the egg, which starts off with a heart that can be affected by its
consequences? Were you a fluid spirit, but after a death, a break-up, a divorce,
or a layoff have you become hardened and stiff. Your shell looks the same, but
are you bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and heart?
Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean changes the hot water, the thing that
is bringing the pain. When the water gets the hottest, it just tastes better.
If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and
make things better around you...you choose.