Published: January 25, 2008 12:52 am            

Filling a bucket list

Dying is not at the top of most people’s lists of their favorite things to ponder.

Death will come to all of us sooner or later, of course. But most of us prefer to bet the over and plan on signing long-term leases when we are in our 90s.

The new movie “The Bucket List,” has impending death as its overriding theme.

In the film, two terminal cancer patients, played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, head off on a road trip with a list of things they want to accomplish before they “kick the bucket.”

Their list includes such feats as skydiving, climbing the pyramids in Egypt, driving race cars and riding motorcycles on the Great Wall of China.

Many people, it seems, have concocted their own bucket lists of goals, dreams and fantasies they hope to fulfill before their final gun sounds.

A Web site, 43things.com, challenges people to list their goals, which range from the mundane (starting a book club) to the fiscally ambitious (starting a business).

I have no bucket list. To date, I don’t even have a bucket and certainly have no intention of kicking one even if I did.

My goals are more short-term. As a friend of mine likes to say, any day you are up and taking nourishment is a good day. I agree.

If I can make it through the day without offending anyone, without making anyone mad at me our without owing anyone money, I consider it a successful day.

But if I had to make a so-called bucket list, it would be topped by recording a hole in one on the golf course — a real golf course, not the miniature kind. Next would be catching a foul ball or home run ball at a major league baseball game. Actually I don’t plan on dying until I accomplish both of these goals, so I will undoubtedly live to be 500 or so.

The 43things.com site lists suggested entries on a roster of life’s goals, so I guess I’ll check a few and see if they fit my needs.

No. 1 is lose weight. I do, but then I gain it right back again. Next is stop procrastinating, which I plan to get to later.

Fall in love? I did that about 33 years ago, and it stuck. Write a book? Did that, too.

No. 5 is be happy, which I tend to be as long as I am warm, dry and well-fed, not unlike the average infant.

Get a tattoo? Nope, not going to happen. I don’t want anything on my body that won’t wash off.

No. 7 is drink more water, while No. 8 is “go on a road trip with no predetermined destination.” Doing the former makes the latter somewhat problematical, since if you don’t know where you’re going you won’t know whether or not there’ll be a bathroom when you get there. Actually I’ve done No. 8. I call it getting lost.

No. 9 is get married. Yep, did that. See No. 3. No. 10 is travel the world, which I have been fortunate to do a fair amount of.

My list, if I made one, would be somewhat more eclectic. I’d like to make more friends, but I struggle with this. I’d also like to be a better friend to the ones I already have.

I would love to become more adept at remembering people’s names, thus eliminating the phrase “what’s his (or her) name,” from my vocabulary completely.

Among the spiritual goals on 43things.com is to witness a miracle, which takes us back to Nos. 3 and 9 of the aforementioned Top 10. The fact she continues to put up with me simply compounds the miracle.

I’d like to be able to make other people happy. That is a gift few people possess.

Among the goals of the protagonists of “The Bucket List” is to kiss the prettiest girl in the world.

I’ve done that, too, nearly every day for the past three decades.



Mullin is senior writer of the News & Eagle.