I received a chain email from a friend this morning. I usually read and delete, since I really don’t like to send along “forwards”. This one actually gave me pause. It was about a man who had calculated the average amount of Saturdays in the average lifespan. In 75 years, you have 3,900 Saturdays (75×52= 3,900). That is the average amount of Saturdays a human being has to enjoy. Admittedly, when that human is very young, it has no concept of “enjoying a Saturday”, but then again that same human has only the responsibility to investigate his or her environment, so it is enjoying pretty much every single day of the week. The man went on to tell of how he only had 1,000 Saturdays left to enjoy, so he went out and bought 1,000 marbles. Every Saturday he would take a marble, and throw it away.
By throwing the marble away, he could see Time running, and focus on what is most important in his life. There’s nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.
By my calculations, I have 1,545 Saturdays left on this Big Blue Marble™. Now, I’m not going out to buy a bunch of marbles. If I did, the kids would end up playing with them. But I will concentrate on enjoying my Saturdays with my family, while keeping a journal of how I spent each one. That way, when I finish the 1,545th entry, I can then appreciate the little extra time I have been gifted on this Earth that much more 🙂
Sithy Things 
April 18th, 2012 at 10:33 AM
This puts a whole new spin on one “losing their marbles”. Perhaps not so much a sign of mental instability as it is approaching senility. I suppose all the marbles you are going to use/collect will be “Aggies”?
April 18th, 2012 at 10:57 AM
VERY nice.
April 18th, 2012 at 3:37 PM
Pretty morbid? Yes. Thought provoking? Definitely. Hope things are going well at su casa.
April 18th, 2012 at 4:53 PM
I don’t think of it as morbid. To me it’s more like facing one’s mortality, and deciding how best to deal with it.
Morbid would be tossing the marble, and crying after it’s gone 🙂
April 18th, 2012 at 7:50 PM
It’s always a good thing to sit back and appreciate the time we have lived and have yet to live. It’s so easy to take the things we have for granted, too. I try to make myself sit back and look around me, thinking that I really have it made when compared to many, many others in the world.
April 18th, 2012 at 8:31 PM
That my friend, is about the only thing that keeps me sane and keeps me going these days. (And having a great wife helps too!)
April 19th, 2012 at 7:44 PM
I’m going to take a leap of male intuition here and read between the marbles. LC, go ahead and buy those marbles, so your kids can play with them, while you renew some old ways of making the most of your week ends. With hubby. Or am I just thinking too much along my deeply embedded stream of consciousness? Who ever heard of male intuition anyways? Cheers.
April 19th, 2012 at 9:00 PM
Hm…. maybe I should get them anyway 😉