“If our condition were truly happy, we would not seek diversion from it in order to make ourselves happy.”
Not to sound morbid, but I’ve been thinking about my life and my death a bit. Partly because I’m naturally inclined toward that kind of introspection, partly because I stumbled upon my will and realized I need to update it, and partly because I’ve been feeling a little abandoned by God and man lately. That, combined with a recent reorganization of my extensive library which turned up three “bucket list” books, led to this post.
Bucket lists are those nifty little tools designed to help you grab life by the horns (or other anatomical part) and yank. You know, the list you make of all the goals and dreams you wish to fulfill before you die. If you put “bucket list” into an internet search engine, you get over 72 million results. There is, of course, the 2007 movie of the same title starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, but most of the results pertain to actual lists people have made or sites devoted to helping you form your own. There’s bucketlist.net and bucketlist.org.
So why have bucket lists become so popular? That brings me to the two Pascal quotes. The first one talks about how we typically live our lives, ignoring the world around us because it’s depressing. To be informed of the condition of the world is to be sad or angry. I think our first reaction when learning about pollution and war and injustice is anger mixed with a feeling of helplessness, because we believe the problem is too big to be solved. So we opt for blissful ignorance by tuning the world out and living insulated lives in the bubbles we create.
Each day, we get boxed up in our cars to drive to work where we’re boxed up in our cubicle or office, only to return to our home box where we’re suffocated by stuff we don’t need and mindless chores. But then, Pascal asserts, we seek diversion because our lives are unhappy. The question is: how do we seek that diversion? Do we continue to ignore the world beyond our insulation and seek entertainment from the idiot box? Or do we realize that our daily grind has become detrimental to our soul? That if we keep it up, one day when we’re living in a retirement home, (if we live that long) we’ll have nothing to show for ourselves. We’ll feel regret not over the things we did, but the things we didn’t do.
If we come to this realization, we proclaim that we will turn over a new leaf, we will be more “mindful,” we will carpe diem. For Christians, we take John 10:10 to mean abundant life right now, not just in heaven. That’s where bucket lists come in. Some people might view bucket lists as selfish since they are, by definition, centered on the writer’s desires. That’s the wrong way to look at bucket lists. First of all, many bucket lists include charitable things: from being a Big Brother or Sister to helping build a house with Habitat for Humanity to adopting a shelter animal, there are many ideas that specifically aim to make the world better. Furthermore, the joie de vivre that a bucket list writer exhibits can be inspiring to the people around them. The world needs more happy and inspirational people, why not be one of them?
You may already have some ideas of things to put on your bucket list, but I’d recommend looking at some examples too. You’ll have to cull out some junk. Obviously not everyone has the same tastes or ideas of what would make a good list. Some things I’ve found were too normal (learn to drive), uninteresting (join a cattle drive), or inapplicable (quit smoking). But I’ve also found ones that I’ve adopted (stand on the equator), adapted (be on a game show; I specified Jeopardy!), or found amusing and may try on a whim without putting it on my actual bucket list (make homemade mustard).
Here are a few of my bucket list items, if you’re interested.
· Fund a WMU Medallion Scholarship
· Own a home with a library with a wheelie ladder
· Write a book that is helpful to someone
· Design and sew an outfit
· Sell something I made (like art, photograph, etc.)
· Take a belly dance lesson from Rachel Brice
· See Tarkan in concert
· Read Ulysses
I think it’s good to have a mix of things that you could do easily and soon (like bake a pie from scratch), things that will take some time and planning (larger goals like learning a language or traveling somewhere) and things that are very improbable or nearly impossible (winning an Oscar for Best Screenplay).
In the Church of God tradition, there’s a prayer by George Huber that says, “Lord, help me to do the things I’ll wish I’d done when I stand before you on that great day.” The prayer is about not committing sins of omission, about doing unto others. But we can apply the sentiment to life in general. We only get one relatively short stint on this earth. Will we do? Or will we spend our golden years lamenting “if only I had…”
So, readers, what do you think? Leave a comment with some things on your own bucket list.