I suppose I feel a bit sappy for saying so, but I quite enjoyed that,
thanks Maximus.


Brian
"Maximus" wrote in message
ink.net...
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 heading toward the basement ham-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 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 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 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. This is a 75 Year old Man,
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.
And
hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some
marbles....

A friend sent this to me, so I to you, my friend.

And so, as one smart bear once said... "If you live to be a hundred, I
want
to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without
you."
-
Winnie the Pooh.

Pass this on to all of your Friends, even if it means sending it to the
person that sent it to you. And if you receive this e-mail many times
from
many different people, it only means that you have many Friends.

And if you get it but once, do not be discouraged for you will know that
you
have at least one good friend... And that would be ME.


Strength and Honor