1000 MARBLES

Some years ago I got one of those email stories that gets passed around. It was one of those ‘thought provoking’ stories and its meaning will happen for me this weekend.

The story is written by a man who is commenting about the joy he finds with Saturday mornings. When you’re an early riser, there’s nothing like the quiet of a non-working morning…just you and your simple, quiet surroundings.

This man also happened to be a ‘ham radio’ hobbyist, and one particular Saturday morning during the quiet, he overheard a conversation on the radio of a gentle voiced older man and a younger fellow. He listened in on the conversation, absorbing the information being shared.

The older man was appreciating the hard work the younger man did and his dedication to his craft, but voiced concern over the price he was paying for his success, mainly the many hours he was working which took time away from his family…particularly his children.

The older man continued by relating how he had a similar lifestyle until one day an event occurred that made him re-think his priorities and he called it his 1000 marbles story.

Like me, the older man apparently liked to play with numbers and one day he stumbled across a formula. He said, on average, a man lives about 75 years. If you multiply 75 years by 52 weeks in a year, you come up with 3900 weeks, more specifically 3900 Saturdays. That’s the number of weeks (Saturdays) the average man has. He then said that by the time he had worked out his formula, he calculated that he only had about 1000 Saturdays left in his life, if he were to live until he was 75.

So the older man decided to go to some toy stores and buy 1000 marbles. He then took them home and put them is a big, clear, plastic container and he sat the container by his ham radio.

Next, he said, every Saturday morning after that, he took a marble out of the container and threw it away. He felt by watching the marbles slowly disappear from the container, he became appreciative of the value of his life and establishing his priorities.

On the specific morning of the conversation, the older man told the younger man that he had taken his last marble out of the jar that morning. He continued, if he could make it until next Saturday morning, everything that happened the rest of his life would be gravy. He closed by hoping his young friend would have a good life, re-think his priorities and enjoy his family.

Well, like the old man, I like playing with numbers and I did the marble calculation for myself.

This Saturday, October 31, I will have 1000 marbles left in my jar.

Hopefully when I take the last one out, there will still be many Saturdays left. I also hope I remember to prioritize the things in my life to enjoy every aspect of it, from the biggest to the smallest detail.


Dan