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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, 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, and 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.”
“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 75 years. I know, some live more and some live less but on average, folks live about 75 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.”
“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 75, 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 with 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large clear plastic container 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 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 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.”
參考譯文：
隨著年齡的增長，我越來越喜愛周六的清晨。這或許是因為我第一個起床可以享受一段靜謐的獨處時光，又或許是因為不用上班所帶來的無限喜悅。不管怎樣，周六清晨頭幾個小時都是相當令人愉悅的。
幾周前，在一個原本與平時毫無二致的周六清晨，生活又給我上了一課，就如它會時不時教授你一些東西一樣。讓我給你講講吧。
（那天早上，）我調高收音機的音量，聽到了一個年長男人鏗鏘的聲音。你知道的，就是那種聽起來應該從事播音主持人的嗓音。他正在和一個叫“湯姆”的人講著什么“1,000顆玻璃彈珠”的事。
這引起了我的興趣，于是我坐下來聽他到底要說些什么。“嗯，湯姆，看起來你工作的確很忙，薪水肯定也不錯，但是你不得不經常遠離家庭和親人，這太遺憾了。簡直不能相信一個年輕人一周必須得工作60或70個小時來維持生計。”
“讓我給你講一件事，湯姆，這件事讓我對自己人生中最重要的事保持了正確的認識。”接著他開始解釋他的“1,000顆玻璃珠”理論。
“一天我坐下來簡單計算了一下，一個普通人大概能活75年，我知道，有些人更長壽一些，有些人壽命則短一些，但平均來講，人大約可以活75年。”
“那么現在，我用75乘以52，結果是3,900，這就是一個普通人一生中所擁有的星期六的總天數。”
“我直到55歲時才詳細思量了這一切，”他繼續說道，“那時我已經活過2800多個星期六了。我于是就想，假如我能活到75歲，我就只剩下大約一千個星期六可以享受了。”
“于是，我去了一家玩具店，把店里的每一顆玻璃彈珠都買了下來，結果總共是1,000顆。我把它們帶回家，放在收音機旁一個干凈的大塑料罐里。從那以后，每過一個星期六，我都會從里面拿出一顆珠子扔掉。”
“我發現，看著珠子慢慢減少，我更加專注于生活中真正重要的事了。看著你在這個世界上的時間慢慢減少，沒有什么比這更能讓自己徹底弄清人生真正重要的事是什么的了。”
“在節目結束并帶我可愛的妻子去吃早餐之前，讓我再最后告訴你一件事吧。今天早上，我拿出了罐子里的最后一顆珠子。我想，如果我能活到下周六，那么，我就被額外賜予了一點時間，而我們能利用的就是那額外的一點時間。”
“跟你聊天很愉快，湯姆，我希望你多花一點時間與自己所愛的人一起度過，我也希望以后再遇到你。祝清晨愉快！”
當他說完，你連一根針落地的聲音都能聽到，就連節目主持人也一時無語。我想，他給了我們很多值得思考的東西。那天早晨，我本打算工作一會兒，然后去健身房。然而，我卻上樓用一吻喚醒了妻子。“來吧，親愛的，我帶你和孩子們去吃早餐。”
“這是怎么回事？”她微笑著問。“啊，沒什么，只是很久我們都沒一起跟孩子們過周六了。嘿，我們出去的時候能順便去下玩具店嗎？我需要買一些玻璃彈珠。”
