The Bucket

This is another post suggested by WordPress’ 365 Days of Writing Prompts .

A Bucket List. I suppose I have one, but I have no idea what’s on it.

In fact, the more I think about it, the worse it gets. What are the types of things people put on their bucket lists?

Are they noble deeds? … Invite a homeless family over from a shelter and into our house for a Sunday meal?

Should they sounds more like a mid life crisis notebook? … Buy a Porsche 944 as a daily driver?

Should they be like New Years’ Resolutions?… Places I would like to go? Get in shape? Run an Ironman?

What I don’t want is to hear that all these questions are things I need to work out for myself.  I’ve seen the movie. I don’t think I’m going to reform my life by learning that the coffee I like is recycled monkey dung and that I need a best friend or assistant to carry my ashes to the top of K2.

If I have to invest a little grey matter into the question, I would realize that the idea of this question is two-fold: 1 – to generate a bucket list of life’s goals. 2 – to take an easy one and tick it off. Or, at least make a plan to.

Of course, there is a website for creating a bucketlist, but it’s a lot of things that I’m not really that excited about. Mostly bungee jumping, meet Mike Tyson and other greasy kids’ stuff.

The things I would like to do some day are like:

I.              Masochistic notions

1. Spend a season in Antarctica near Mt. Terror and Mt. Erebus.
2. Drive across Siberia
3. Hike across Antarctica
4. Hike to the North Pole or perhaps sail the NorthWest Passage (sadly, there is one now)
5. Spend a season in Antarctica near Mt. Terror and Mt. Erebus.

II.            Self Improvement

1. Learn to code (and prove it by building an app, multifunctional website, etc)
2. Learn a language well enough to not have someone insist that we just speak English
3. Publish a book (vanity press / self publishing does not count)
4. Buy and work on a project car (learn to do what it takes to get this done without outsourcing everything)
5. Make a noticeable difference in someone’s life (a la It’s a Wonderful Life – in a manner of speaking)

III.          Get a real job where I can feel like I am challenging myself, doing something creative that I can do better than just any teenager off the street and earn enough so I don’t feel like a waste of potential.

1. (I guess that about covers it … and this one’s #11)

And yet, through all of it, remember the worlds of Albert Camus, “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”

So, don’t actually think about the bucket.

Just do it?