一千颗玻璃弹珠的故事

当今社会生活节奏快，工作压力大，许多人都因工作繁忙而不能常常与家人团聚。工作固然重要，但你是否因此而忽视了对自己来说最重要的人或事了呢?你又是否因工作而牺牲了许多与家人共度周末的机会了呢?读读下面这篇小文吧，或许会对你有所启发……

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it’s the quiet solitude[2] 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.[3] 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[4] 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[5].”

“Let me tell you something Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities.”[6] 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[7].”

“Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign off[8] 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[9] honey, I’m taking you and the kids to breakfast.”

“What brought this on[10]?” 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.”

随着年龄的增长，我越来越喜爱周六的清晨。这或许是因为我第一个起床可以享受一段静谧的独处时光，又或许是因为不用上班所带来的无限喜悦。不管怎样，周六清晨头几个小时都是相当令人愉悦的。

几周前，在一个原本与平时毫无二致的周六清晨，生活又给我上了一课，就如它会时不时教授你一些东西一样。让我给你讲讲吧。

(那天早上，)我调高收音机的音量，听到了一个年长男人铿锵的声音。你知道的，就是那种听起来本应该自己就从事播音主持的人的嗓音。他正在和一个叫“汤姆”的人讲着什么“1,000颗玻璃弹珠”的事。

这引起了我的兴趣，于是我坐下来听他到底要说些什么。“嗯，汤姆，看起来你工作的确很忙，薪水肯定也不错，但是你不得不经常远离家庭和亲人，这太遗憾了。简直不能相信一个年轻人一周必须得工作60或70个小时来勉强维持生计。”

“让我给你讲一件事，汤姆，这件事让我对自己人生中最重要的事保持了正确的认识。”接着他开始解释他的“1,000颗玻璃珠”理论。

“话说，有一天我坐下来简单计算了一下，一个普通人大概能活75年，我知道，有些人更长寿一些，有些人寿命则短一些，但平均来讲，人大约可以活75年。”

“那么现在，我用75乘以52，结果是3,900，这就是一个普通人一生中所拥有的星期六的总天数。”

“我直到55岁时才详细思量了这一切，”他继续说道，“那时我已经活过2800多个星期六了。我于是就想，假如我能活到75岁，我就只剩下大约一千个星期六可以享受了。”

“于是，我去了一家玩具店，把店里的每一颗玻璃弹珠都买了下来，结果总共是1,000颗。我把它们带回家，放在收音机旁一个干净的大塑料罐里。从那以后，每过一个星期六，我都会从里面拿出一颗珠子扔掉。”

“我发现，看着珠子慢慢减少，我更加专注于生活中真正重要的事了。看着你在这个世界上的时间慢慢减少，没有什么比这更能让自己彻底弄清人生真正重要的事是什么的了。”

“在节目结束并带我可爱的妻子去吃早餐之前，让我再最后告诉你一件事吧。今天早上，我拿出了罐子里的最后一颗珠子。我想，如果我能活到下周六，那么，我就被额外赐予了一点时间，而我们能利用的就是那额外的一点时间。”

“跟你聊天很愉快，汤姆，我希望你多花一点时间与自己所爱的人一起度过，我也希望以后再遇到你。祝清晨愉快!”

当他说完，你连一根针落地的声音都能听到，就连节目主持人也一时无语。我想，他给了我们很多值得思考的东西。那天早晨，我本打算工作一会儿，然后去健身房。然而，我却上楼用一吻唤醒了妻子。“来吧，亲爱的，我带你和孩子们去吃早餐。”

“这是怎么回事?”她微笑着问。“啊，没什么，只是很久我们都没一起跟孩子们过周六了。嘿，我们出去的时候能顺便去下玩具店吗?我需要买一些玻璃弹珠。”