One Thousand Marbles
《一千枚弹珠》

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...
我是一名业余无线电操作员，从事无线电和电子方面的工作。所以，当听到这个故事时，真的使我陷入了深深地思考！我希望你们也能把我从故事中学到的，应用到你们自己的生活中去......
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.
几个星期前，我一只手拿着一杯热气腾腾的咖啡，另一只手拿着早报，拖着脚步慢慢地朝着地下室的无线电收发室走去。典型的星期六早晨开始了，而这个早晨却让学到了关于生活的宝贵一课。下面我来给你们讲一讲那天早晨发生的事情。
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".
我把我的业余无线电台调到通话波段，收听星期六早间的交流节目。收听过程中，我偶然搜到了一个年长的男声，他的信号非常好，声音浑厚且有磁性。你们知道，就是那种类似于专业播音员的嗓音。他正在向某个人讲述一个关于“一千枚弹珠”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."
这引起了我的兴趣，随即停下来听他要说些什么。“好吧，汤姆，听起来你工作非常忙。我确信你的收入很可观，但遗憾的是，你不得不经常外出，没法常常陪伴家人。难以置信一个年轻人要每星期工作六、七十个小时，来满足基本的生活需求。你错过了自己女儿的舞蹈表演，这简直太糟糕了。”

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."
他继续说：“汤姆，我给你讲一件关于我自己的事情，这件事让我对自己人生的优先次序有了一个很好的视角。”然后，他便开始阐述他的“一千枚弹珠”理论。
"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，我坐下来仔细算了一下。正常人的寿命大约是75岁。我知道有些人寿命更长一些，有些人寿命更短一些，但平均而言，人们能活75岁左右。”
"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，这就是正常人一生中能够拥有的星期六的天数。继续听我说，汤姆，下面我要讲述重要部分了。”
"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岁那年，我才开始仔细考虑这个问题，”他继续说道，“那个时候，我已经度过了2800个星期六。我开始思考，如果我能活到75岁，我就只剩下一千个左右的星期六可以度过了。”
"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，把店里的全部弹珠都买了下来。最后，我不得不逛遍三家玩具店才凑够了1000枚弹珠。我把它们带回家，放进了一个大号的透明塑料容器里，然后把这个塑料容器放在我无线电收发室的无线电设备旁。从那以后的每个星期六，我都会从那个塑料容器中取出一枚弹珠，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."
“我发现，通过观察弹珠一点点减少，我开始更加关注生活中真正重要的事情。世间没有什么比看着自己的时间一点点耗尽，更能帮助自己更加明确地确定自己人生的优先顺序了。”
"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."
“最后我再给你讲一件事情，然后我就要结束广播，带着我可爱的妻子去吃早餐了。今天早晨，我刚刚从容器中取出了最后一枚弹珠。我想，如果我能活到下周六，我就已经比预想的得到了更多的时间。而且，多一些时间才是真正对我们有用的。”
"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again."
“很高兴遇到你，汤姆。我希望你能多陪陪家人，希望我们再次相遇。”
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.
当他结束广播时，广播里突然变得鸦雀无声。我认为，他给予了我们很多值得思考的东西。那天早上，我原本打算摆弄下我的天线，然后与几个业余无线爱好者碰面，准备下一次的俱乐部时事通讯。但，现在，我改变了主意。我走上楼，用一个吻唤醒了我还在睡梦中的妻子。
"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，亲爱的，我带你和孩子们去吃早餐。”“是什么让你有这个想法的？”她笑着问道。“噢，没什么特别的，我们很久没和孩子们一起共度周六了。对了，我们出去后，可不可以在某家玩具店里停留一下？我要买一些弹珠。”