Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
There’s a Hole in My Bucket (List)
‘Twas Burns that said of mice and men,
Two hundred years ago
The best-laid schemes gang aft agley, a
Truth so wretch’d, bless’d be
To twist the tack of life we plow!
Truth be told, I don’t have a bucket list. It’s not that I don’t believe in having goals or aspirations or hopes for certain experiences. It’s just that over time (and reinforced by those annoying disruptions and intrusions of “real life”), I’ve learned that life has a way of upsetting “the best laid plans o’ mice and men.” The more detailed the plan, the more likely events conspire to undermine the effort. My mantra, if I have one, is to find ways to adapt, to keep moving and avoid the trap that leads to paralysis when life takes a hard unexpected turn. It’s a difficult trap to avoid for those of us who don’t get along with the idea of “change.”
That said, I’m older now. The proverbial nest is empty (for now), and I find myself thinking about things I’d like to do before I kick that so-called bucket. Really, it’s more about finding things to do that I enjoy, or want to achieve, now that the primary child-rearing years are over. I’m a fairly milquetoast fella, and I lack both the imagination and impulse to climb ridiculously high mountains, jump out of airplanes, or get launched into suborbital trajectories. But there are a few things I’d like to do:
- Write and publish a book
- Take a vacation on train lines throughout the Great Northwest
- Serve/teach in a meaningful Christian ministry
- Experience being a granddad (kind of outside my control, but a wish nonetheless)
- Buy a small cabin on a lake (private dock, canoe, small boat with an outboard)
- Attend the launch of a manned space vehicle (I missed out on a shuttle launch due to mission scrub)
- …
I’m sure I could come up with more, but they’d simply be a list of various trips I want to take, or places I want to see (or see again).
So, if you are willing, indulge me. Forget COVID. Forget the headlines of the day. Cast off things that hinder. What’s on your bucket list? (Just know that if you have good ones, I reserve the right to appropriate them for my own purposes. I’m crowd-sourcing ideas for my own bucket. Hey, I can do that, right?)
Published in General
Yeah, I’ve always wanted to train travel across Australia.
But now that I can, I don’t want to.
I don’t have a bucket list. I’m not even sure I have a bucket.
I have no bucket list for the same reason you mentioned. There’s also not much I would be inclined to do. But in the spirit of the quest, I’ll offer a few ideas.
Flying around the world in an airship as a passenger.
Visiting the North Pole and the South Pole.
Sailing around the world on an aircraft carrier as a passenger. (I have a fear of ruthless pirates on the high seas.)
Finishing out life as a pirate in the spirit of Robin of the Hood. (I would only relieve rich politicians of their already stolen goods.)
Rob Long road on a container ship.
I would like to travel across Europe on the Orient Express. No need for the murder.
I’d like to go to Newfoundland.
I once thought I’d like to go to New Zealand, but I’m rethinking that one in light of recent events…
And then there’s what I’ve always thought of as a dream cruise (I love the water), which is a lovely cabin with a small porch/view of the ocean, a well-stocked bar, and luxurious amenities, and thrice-daily room service of delicious meals thrust through the door, and absolutely no requirement that I leave and mingle with the other guests, or dress for dinner, or ever take my pajamas off if I don’t want to, but an understanding that I’d stay in my cabin the whole time, reading and knitting to my heart’s content. I think a week or ten days like that would be delightful.
I’d also like to sail on a tall ship.
Awww … I was looking forward to that part.
Me too man; me too.
There’s always someone who would not be missed. I have him on my list.
I didn’t have a bucket list, but I had a few plans. Not a single one worked out, but the things that happened instead were actually better than what I had planned.
Now as an old man, I still don’t have a bucket list, but my [redacted] it list has grown considerably.
I’d like my husband to stay away all day for about 3 weeks while I do some things around the house without input or interruption.
I’d like to read about 100 books and write one.
I want an upstairs, screened-in porch—-no glass, just big squares of screens—so I can look out at the field and trees of the property next door to us while having a cigarette and wine or coffee.
I want to ride a special bike I saw advertised over the empty roads in the fall where my mother in law has a beach house, especially at sunset.
I want to go back to Harper’s Ferry, see Mount Vernon again and/or see the Alamo with my husband, children and their spouses and grandchildren. I’d also like to go to Ireland or Italy with the same company by boat.
I’d love for my son and favorite nephew to meet. I’d also love them both to see a really good production of Macbeth.
I want to become the type of person who always knows to keep her bucket list subject to the “Love Walks In” rule (I think that’s the title of the Van Halen song.) Meaning: I can accurately remember on my death bed that I stopped letting what I liked doing interfere with being there for people I love, especially grandchildren.
“Wouldn’t you like to go on a long fishing trip?”
I think that Van Halen dude said that song is about alien abduction.
Love the list, and especially this item here.
Since I started ( with wife) cruising a decade + ago, I have wanted to go on a world cruise that took an entire year to complete. Pure pipe dream but I still check once in a while to see if such a thing continues to be available.
Since I’ve already stretched reality which is kind of the spirit of a bucket list I thought of one more from a younger perspective:
I always wanted to fly a Colonial Viper
Me neither, but it rhymes.
I can just adopt your list. It’s perfect, with a couple of revisions.
I owe my wife a cruise (unfortunate timing on a blown appendix). Not interested in a world cruise, but giving her the cruise she’s asked for a few times over the last almost 30 years is a must-do, when we’re confident it’s doable.
There’s a kid in me that identifies very strongly with this.
Me too. In the grandest cabin on the ship. One that costs as much as a moderate house.
Numbers 3, 4 and 5 sound great to me, but I have a reason that I don’t have a bucket list. It’s God’s promise of a new earth where I will live forever. It will be far better than anything I experience here. I don’t feel the need to get in all the wonderful experiences I could have in this present life. That means I can focus on fulfilling God’s will for me in serving others and not be so concerned about self-actualization.
Re # 17,
Suspira,
Would you please supply a link to your novel that’s going up on Amazon, if there is one ?
I will be happy to! It’s in the final editing stage, so it will be a few more weeks before it goes up. Is there a proper place on Ricochet for that sort of self-promotion?
Just write a post, same as others have done.
Or get someone to read and review it.
Good one Jim. I only have one although your No. 2 was tempting. Visit 20 college football stadiums for games in the fall. Hope I can do it in 3 years. Since OU going to the SEC, where about half of them are, might be doable and friends at 3 of those stadiums will have tickets for me. Just have to retire and escape San Fran first. Was lucky enough to do the carrier trip 50 years ago and saw plenty of N. Zealand and Australia so no real travel needs. Just football. Too lazy to learn a new language.
Good call. As an alum of Auburn (and member of the marching band – in fact, I’m heading down there this weekend for alumni band), I’ve seen games at Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee, Vandy, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi State, and LSU. Never made it to Kentucky or Ole Miss.
Arkansas and South Carolina joined the league in 1992, toward the end of my time there, so I missed those. Likewise with Texas A&M and Missouri, not surprisingly. Of these, I’d most like to see a game in College Station sometime. No interest in seeing the Longhorns, and while I look forward to games against OU, not sure I’d be that excited about a trip to Norman, to be honest.
Outside of the SEC, I’d have liked to catch games at Penn State, Clemson, and ND. And while I’m sure there’s much to be said about Ohio State or Michigan, I really have no interest in either one.