One Thousand Marbles
《一千枚彈珠》

I'm a Ham radio operator and work with radios and electronics. So when I heard this story it really made me think! I hope that you can apply the lessons I've learned from it to your life as well...
我是一名業(yè)余無線電操作員，從事無線電和電子方面的工作。所以，當(dāng)聽到這個故事時，真的使我陷入了深深地思考！我希望你們也能把我從故事中學(xué)到的，應(yīng)用到你們自己的生活中去......
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.
幾個星期前，我一只手拿著一杯熱氣騰騰的咖啡，另一只手拿著早報，拖著腳步慢慢地朝著地下室的無線電收發(fā)室走去。典型的星期六早晨開始了，而這個早晨卻讓學(xué)到了關(guān)于生活的寶貴一課。下面我來給你們講一講那天早晨發(fā)生的事情。
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 whomever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles".
我把我的業(yè)余無線電臺調(diào)到通話波段，收聽星期六早間的交流節(jié)目。收聽過程中，我偶然搜到了一個年長的男聲，他的信號非常好，聲音渾厚且有磁性。你們知道，就是那種類似于專業(yè)播音員的嗓音。他正在向某個人講述一個關(guān)于“一千枚彈珠”的故事。
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."
這引起了我的興趣，隨即停下來聽他要說些什么。“好吧，湯姆，聽起來你工作非常忙。我確信你的收入很可觀，但遺憾的是，你不得不經(jīng)常外出，沒法常常陪伴家人。難以置信一個年輕人要每星期工作六、七十個小時，來滿足基本的生活需求。你錯過了自己女兒的舞蹈表演，這簡直太糟糕了。”

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."
他繼續(xù)說：“湯姆，我給你講一件關(guān)于我自己的事情，這件事讓我對自己人生的優(yōu)先次序有了一個很好的視角。”然后，他便開始闡述他的“一千枚彈珠”理論。
"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."
“一天，我坐下來仔細(xì)算了一下。正常人的壽命大約是75歲。我知道有些人壽命更長一些，有些人壽命更短一些，但平均而言，人們能活75歲左右。”
"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3,900, 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."
“然后，我用75乘以52，就得到了3900，這就是正常人一生中能夠擁有的星期六的天數(shù)。繼續(xù)聽我說，湯姆，下面我要講述重要部分了。”
"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."
“直到55歲那年，我才開始仔細(xì)考慮這個問題，”他繼續(xù)說道，“那個時候，我已經(jīng)度過了2800個星期六。我開始思考，如果我能活到75歲，我就只剩下一千個左右的星期六可以度過了。”
"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 1,000 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."
“于是，我去了一家玩具店，把店里的全部彈珠都買了下來。最后，我不得不逛遍三家玩具店才湊夠了1000枚彈珠。我把它們帶回家，放進(jìn)了一個大號的透明塑料容器里，然后把這個塑料容器放在我無線電收發(fā)室的無線電設(shè)備旁。從那以后的每個星期六，我都會從那個塑料容器中取出一枚彈珠，然后扔掉。”
"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."
“我發(fā)現(xiàn)，通過觀察彈珠一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)減少，我開始更加關(guān)注生活中真正重要的事情。世間沒有什么比看著自己的時間一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)耗盡，更能幫助自己更加明確地確定自己人生的優(yōu)先順序了。”
"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."
“最后我再給你講一件事情，然后我就要結(jié)束廣播，帶著我可愛的妻子去吃早餐了。今天早晨，我剛剛從容器中取出了最后一枚彈珠。我想，如果我能活到下周六，我就已經(jīng)比預(yù)想的得到了更多的時間。而且，多一些時間才是真正對我們有用的。”
"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again."
“很高興遇到你，湯姆。我希望你能多陪陪家人，希望我們再次相遇。”
You could have heard a pin drop on the radio 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.
當(dāng)他結(jié)束廣播時，廣播里突然變得鴉雀無聲。我認(rèn)為，他給予了我們很多值得思考的東西。那天早上，我原本打算擺弄下我的天線，然后與幾個業(yè)余無線愛好者碰面，準(zhǔn)備下一次的俱樂部時事通訊。但，現(xiàn)在，我改變了主意。我走上樓，用一個吻喚醒了我還在睡夢中的妻子。
"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."
“起床啦，親愛的，我?guī)愫秃⒆觽內(nèi)コ栽绮汀！薄笆鞘裁醋屇阌羞@個想法的？”她笑著問道。“噢，沒什么特別的，我們很久沒和孩子們一起共度周六了。對了，我們出去后，可不可以在某家玩具店里停留一下？我要買一些彈珠。”