A THOUSAND 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  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 weeks 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 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 really 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. So, I figure if I make it until  next Saturday then I have been given a little  extra time. And the one thing we can all use  and we all want is a little more time."  "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, 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." YOU HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND  AND MAY ALL YOUR SATURDAYS BE SPECIAL!