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WITandWISDOM(tm) - March 28, 2001 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: One of the most important ways to manifest integrity is to be loyal to those who are not present. In doing so, we build the trust of those who are present. - Stephen R. Covey Source: The Funnies, andychaps_the-funnies- subscribe@egroups.com ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: A THOUSAND MARBLES By Jeff Davis Copyright (c) 1999 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 basement 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 whoever 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 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 round-up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside of 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 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. 73 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. 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. Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles." Submitted by Vance Kennedy, Bunni, John Hoh, Phil Sarlo ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: GREAT QUOTES FROM GREAT MINDS Part 1 of 2 [Mar 28, Apr 9] Kids say the strangest things. Some grade school teachers must agree with that, because they keep journals of amusing things their students have written in papers. Here are a few examples: The future of "I give" is "I take." The parts of speech are lungs and air. The inhabitants of Moscow are called Mosquitoes. A census taker is a man who goes from house to house increasing the population. Water is composed of two gins. Oxygin and Hydrogin. Oxygin is pure gin. Hydrogin is gin and water. A virgin forest is a forest where the hand of man has never set foot. The general direction of the Alps is straight up. A city purifies its water supply by filtering the water then forcing it through an aviator. Most of the houses in France are made of plaster of Paris. The spinal column is a long bunch of bones. The head sits on the top and you sit on the bottom. We do not raise silk worms in the United States, because we get our silk from rayon. He is a larger worm and gives more silk. Submitted by Walt Groff ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: There are days when it takes all you've got just to keep up with the losers. - Robert Orben Submitted by Shared by Bettie ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: E-MAIL ADDRESS TRICK I stumbled upon this one the other day and just had to share it with you. Someone had requested to be added to the newsletter, so I copied their e-mail address and had full intentions of pasting it into the subscription form. Well, I must have been distracted at the time because I accidently pasted the address into my web browser address box and hit Enter. Before I could mutter, up came the web site for his e-mail domain! Here, try it with my address: steve@worldstart.com Don't click the address, copy and paste it into your web browser. Cool huh? So, if you ever feel the need to find out where someone is coming from, especially if it's a "SPAM" type e-mail, just copy and paste the e-mail address into your web browser and hit enter. This is also good if you want to see someone's web site but only have their e-mail address (presuming that they own their own domain). By steve@worldstart.com Source: Computer Tips, www.coolnewsletters.com |