Life is short

[Gossamer_2701]

Life is short-time

is fleeting!


1000 Saturdays

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 kitchen 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 volume up on my radio in order to listen to a

Saturday

morning talk show. I heard an older

sounding chap with a golden voice. You know the kind, he

sounded like he

should be in the broadcasting

business himself. He was talking about \"a thousand

marbles\" to someone

named \"Tom.\" I was intrigued

and sat down 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 roundup 1000

marbles. I took them home and put them inside of

a large, clear plastic container

right here in my workshop

next to the radio. 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 if I make it until

next Saturday then

God has blessed me with a little extra time to be

with my loved ones.


\"It was nice to talk to you Tom, I

hope you spend more time with your

loved ones, and I hope to meet

you again someday. Have a good morning!\"




You could have heard a pin drop when he finished. Even the show\'s

moderator didn\'t have anything to

say

for a few moments. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had

planned to do some work that



morning, then, go to the gym. 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,\" I

said. \" It has 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.\"


HAVE A GREAT

WEEKEND AND MAY ALL SATURDAYS BE SPECIAL AND MAY YOU HAVE MANY HAPPY YEARS AFTER YOU LOSE ALL YOUR MARBLES

[OCP]

Great for putting a little

perspective in busy lives.

BTW, isn\'t it odd that Einstien can define insanity better than 90% (perhaps better

than all of them) of the personality theroists througout the ages. I love the quote because it is soooo true. So

many people keep making the same stupid mistakes and wonder why their pathetic little lives are screwed up. OK, I

am off my soap box for a while. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[bjf]

</font><blockquote><font

class=\"small\">Quote:</font><hr />
BTW, isn\'t it odd that Einstien can define insanity better than 90%

(perhaps better than all of them) of the personality theroists througout the ages. I love the quote because it is

soooo true.

<hr /></blockquote><font class=\"post\">

You can do the same thing over and over, but how can

you expect the same results if variables change?

[Gossamer_2701]

</font><blockquote><font class=\"small\">Quote:</font><hr />
So many people keep making the same stupid mistakes

and wonder why their pathetic little lives are screwed up.

<hr /></blockquote><font class=\"post\">
Its

called natural selection in my book [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]
I got this emailed to me

like a year ago, and I just found again. Its just so well said.

[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Einstien had such an incredible mind.... and the variables are

probably pretty small and don\'t really alter the outcome very much.... Hey...

[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]It\'s all relative

[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]