BUCKET LIST

Since Jack Nicolson and Morgan Freeman costarred in the movie “The Bucket List,” I have heard many people refer to their own wishes and ambitions for the future as their bucket lists. I think it’s noble to have a list of goals and ambitions you would like to accomplish within your lifetime. It may even fall under the guise of good planning. One big difference for most of us is—as it applied to the two actors in the movie—they had an end date in their story, and most of us don’t. So, does it really fall under the guidelines of a true bucket list, when you have no timeline to complete whatever it is you want to do? Common sense tells us we all have an end date, but fortunately, no one has spelled it out for us. When I was married, my wife hinted at one for me if I didn’t change my ways, but thank God, it never came to that.

As I remember in the movie, Jack & Morgan had a written list, and not just some things that were on the top of their minds to accomplish someday. They also put them in some kind of chronological order where we, who have no written list to refer to, tend to not prioritize things but say, “If the opportunity presents itself, I would like to go here or do this.” I, personally, still have a bucket list, or at least, I think I do, but it’s not written in stone, or anywhere else for that matter. I have taken things off my bucket list because they were no longer physically possible or monetarily feasible, and I have added new things that I didn’t know existed when I started the list and I’m not sure if that’s legal or not. I’ve taken things off the list because, truth be told, I can’t remember what the heck it was I was going to do, anyway.  Heck, I’ve even put things back on my list that were once on it, and that I had already done, because I had so much fun I wanted to do them again. If I had a written list, I probably couldn’t do it anyway because, if you’ve seen my desk, you would know that I wouldn’t be able to find it even if I wanted to. Also, if I did find it and it was written in cursive, by me, I wouldn’t be able to read it either.

So, for the most part, I fly by the seat of my pants. I say “for the most part” because someone else has come into my life. Most of the things I want to do involve her now, and she is incredibly organized, so I defer to her in such matters. Now, that being said, it makes sense that some of the things that are on my list, and not on hers, and vice versa, need to be negotiated if we are going to do them at all.  I don’t think she has any interest in tipping cows, so that’s off the list. One of the things that is so ironic about this whole bucket list thing, at least for me, is this—she was once on my bucket list.

In the end, I think many of us have one thing in common on our bucket lists, and like Morgan and Jack, it will be the last thing on our list because, at least in my Christian belief, you can only experience it once and it will be the last thing you do. It’s the one thing that takes you to the next level after death, and it is something you talked about accomplishing all of your earthily life. I’m talking about getting your hand stamped at those heavenly gates and being invited in. It’s something you prayed and worked for all of those years and it’s something that should be on everyone’s bucket list.