Your bucket list

As a child, when I heard Dad say to Mom, “Hey, did you hear that Old Man Smith kicked the bucket yesterday?”, I thought I’d laugh so hard I’d kick it myself.

“Kicking the bucket” has since stood the test of time as one of life’s more entertaining euphemisms for “dying” that I’ve ever heard.  

So what’s on your “bucket list”, my friends - your list of things you’d like to do before you raise a leg and kick the bucket? Whether we be old or young, any of us could “kick the bucket” at any time, though us older folk already have a leg up on the young; we’ve had a bit more time to jockey for position.

I see no good reason for young folks not to make a bucket list, too. Death is just a part of life. And the sooner we learn that fact the sooner we will seek to live a meaningful life, and not be prone to waste it away on trivialities and/or materialism (as too many do, young or old).  

I had never really written down my bucket list before, so the experience was an eye-opener for me. I have discovered that such a list tells us a lot about ourselves; what’s really important to us - and what’s not so important at all. No trips to Europe or ocean cruises for me (though I realize those may be perfectly fine and meaningful goals for others).

When making my own bucket list, I was struck by how it is so largely bound to my family, my friends, my ex-students, my pets, and my hometown.  

I also realize that much of my own list may be more properly referred to as “daily goals” or “a way of life”. I will surely refine it a bit. But that is part of the process that goes into making a good and true bucket list; we are able to continually refine and update it.

You may find your list to be totally different than mine. Indeed, it should be. Your bucket list is your bucket list. No one can tell you what must or must not go on it.

I jotted down my list in no particular order. Here it is: