Apparently after the movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, this became quite the thing. I tend to not notice social phenomena, so it wasn't until a year or so ago I discovered this. So I looked at it a bit, and was surprised at some things.
The premise, as I understand it, is that one has X number of weeks/months to live. Were it years, we'd all be in the same boat. One then list what one would like to see/do before they leave this world.
Common things on the list are wishes to do things: ride an elephant, visit Bora Bora, flyboard (?). Others are visiting places not seen, going back to places, etc. The surprising thing to me is I can't find one that says "I'd like them to cure this cancer", or "I'd like to see my family get along better"...things like that.
So with that in mind, here's my 'bucket list".
1. See a woman, leftist, feminist even perhaps but not mandatory, socialist President of the United States.
2. See a really irritated 600 lb grizzly wander into my town on a Monday morning, around 9am.
3. Bring back from the dead Wm. Buckley and Gore Vidal and make them debate again. On Fox. Frost as moderator.
4. Have the guy who whacked my arm in the Redmond vs Bend basketball game in 1963 admit to it. I would have made that shot. It was a foul.
5. Simultaneously , across the world, whatever peas people had in their house would be in a blender. We would have 'world peace'.
6. One of my kids would have an epiphany in the middle of the night, or anytime really. They would realize what was needed in their life was....fly fishing. They would pick up the phone, call dad, pleasantries exchanged, bargains made, etc. Arrangements made. They would get a case of fly rods, fly tying materials and equipment, a check for lessons. Months later a blog would be started, showing large steelhead caught and released, plans for a trip to Alaska, etc.
Last one is stretching it, I realize. The rest, I'm still waiting.
Nice presidential idea. I've said I want the next president to be a Latino lesbian atheist. The thought being, after that, nothing would be shocking.
ReplyDeleteIf I believed in/were afraid of it, I'd probably be going straight to Hell for that one...
You don't fish, do you? You could substitute, what the hell. Eventually you'll have to move to Montana or Alaska, but....Nice fly rods, man. A Heddon Black Beauty, a Montague, and some good glass rods.
DeleteThink about it.
I'd take whirled peas and the grizzly. A little excitement in the midst of whirled peas, you know. As for the rest, it will happen or isn't important.
ReplyDeleteHopefully some variation of #1 will happen, I think it's important.
DeleteI like your bucket list, Mike. But the concept is still unclear to me; I take a great deal of satisfaction in the long list of things I haven't done too.
ReplyDeleteMe too. Particularly the one about me never having run out of gas while driving.
DeleteHmmm...I think a bucket list is supposed to be things you have always wanted to do but have been putting off because you are too busy. Your list, though a good one, is more like what you would ask for if you found a magic lamp.
ReplyDeleteYou might have a shot at #6 if you footed the bill. I think you should try and make that one happen.
50 years and you'll never get over a foul in a basketball game...I love it!
Hey, I would have had 26 points that game instead of 24!
DeleteNice list though I like the grizzly best, best especially if he'd wander into my annoying neighbors back yard while I was enjoying whirled peas....
ReplyDeleteMaybe some summer a polar bear will wander down from Hudson's Bay, it's a straight shot.
DeleteI think the idea is to put things on the list that are actually possible. But boy, I'd love to see #1 happen, too!
ReplyDeleteWhat's the fun in that? Possible is boring. I'm still waiting for my personal jet pack that was promised back in the '50's.
DeleteLove the list and especially enjoyed the bear...... 600 lbs
ReplyDeleteWould he have to do anything or just walk
They actually get even bigger; a 800 lb one was hit by a truck and killed north of here a few years ago. In the winter moose get pushed down by the snow levels, and sometimes wander the uptown section.
DeleteWell, I'd like the Powerball to award me something other than the extremely rare 3 to 7 dollars. But I guess that might be along the same lines as that jerk from 1963 admitting to his uncalled foul. Good luck to both of us.
ReplyDeleteProbably equal odds.
DeleteHi SFM, I love this list. Very positive. Have you ever made the dinner party list? You might enjoy it. It involves listing 12 people (more or less), living or dead, real or fiction, that you would invite to your ultimate dinner party. For example, I would invite Ernest Hemingway, the character David Duchovny plays on Californication, and the characters of the two elderly aunts in the book, Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. That's what I'd do today, anyways. It's constantly changing.
ReplyDeleteClosest post I've done to that was last year I think I did a post about a reporter travelling back in time and interviewing one of the writers of the constitution and bill of rights.
Deletetesting 123
ReplyDeleteBlitzing the world in an "if this is Tuesday, it must be Belgium" way has never appealed to me there goes a bucket list.
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with being more present in the moment of one's life? Bucket Lists are walmartifications of existence.
If I'm grouchy, well there it is.
XO
WWW
Nothing wrong with it, one doesn't preclude the other, though. Why write this? Um, humor, however feeble. Irony on a couple. Because I wanted to for the rest.
DeleteNothing wrong with being grouchy either, as long as one doesn't make it a standard, fall-back position.
1. I'd like to see majorities of the same in the Congress and Senate.
ReplyDelete2. I'd like to see a squadron of Halifax bagpipers walking down that street in your town at 9am that same morning.
3. Once, just once, in any universe to see Frank Zappa have a few words with Donald Rumsfeld.
4. I'll join Facepalm the day that guy admits he fouled you in 1963.
5. I'd like to see a full and open investigation of what really happened on 9/11.
6. I'm still thinking about this one.
1. Be careful what you wish for, it may well happen in this mid-term election in the US. I wouldn't care for it if the gop wins.
Delete2. I gather you don't care for your bagpipers?
3. Concur, if the Mothers of Invention are there to play their music.
4. Don't think you have to worry about joining.
5. Oh dear, we're not talking conspiracy here are we?
Enjoyed the list. That bear would be something.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it? Notice I made it 9am after kids are in school.
DeleteLove this list! I had a boyfriend who had a "Visual Whirled Peas" bumper sticker. Also "Honk If You Love Cheeses." Seemed a good sign.
ReplyDeleteI hope I'm not in your town when the irritated bear wanders along, though.
In 69 I had one on the back of my truck that said "Honk if you're Jesus".
ReplyDeleteAh, just toss hiim a fish or steak, then leave quickly.