The doctor examining his eyes backed away from the scope she had been looking through and asked, "Are you afraid?" She was referring to the surgery he was undergoing in five days.
"No, not afraid." he replied. "But it makes you think about your mortality."
Eleven years before he faced death and the possibility of a shortened lifespan. He had gotten a fish bowl and filled it with marbles. He put in a marble for every week he hoped to live. One thousand and forty marbles. The plan was to take a marble out of the bowl every week and throw it away. It would be a reminder that if he got to thow all of the marbles away he had lived the full life he hoped for.
Throwing away marbles each week went the way of other "good" habits like eating smaller portions and drinking eight glasses of water a day. While he stopped throwing the marbles away, he kept the bowl full of marbles.
He looked at the bowl holding the remaining marbles. "How many more will I be able to throw away?"
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