1,000 Marbles
一千颗弹珠
By Archie Adams ■
湖南师范大学 谭烁 选注
生活中什么才是真正重要的？
也许不经意间，小小的弹珠会告诉你这个大道理。
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 unbounded1 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.2 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.3 Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with
a tremendous signal and a golden voice.4 You know the kind, he sounded
like he should be in the broadcasting business.5
He was telling whoever he was talking with something about "a thousand
marbles."6 I was intrigued7 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.8 Too bad
you missed your daughter's dance recital."9
He continued, "Let me tell you something Tom, something that has
helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities."10 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.11 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 5212 and I came up with 3,900,
which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their
entire lifetime. Now stick with me,13 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 1,000 marbles.14
I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container
right here in the shack next to my gear.15 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 my life. There is nothing like watching
your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight."16
Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign off17 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 Saturday18
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 years 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.19 I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to
work on the antenna20 that morning, and then I was going to meet up
with a few hams21 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."
Work like you don't need the money...Love like you've never been hurt...Dance
like nobody's watching...
