Bucket Lists

A bucket list is made up of those things one wants to do before dying. It's not in an order of importance or when but just thrown together. There are two (maybe more but two that came to mind) ways to look at a bucket list.

For assorted reasons, one thinking it'd be too sad for where I was currently, I had put off watching the film, The Bucket List. Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman play two old men who come together in a hospital and each receive the news that they do not have long to live. They find friendship and go on one last quest around the world to fulfill some of the dreams they had put off. I recommend the film as being enjoyable, funny, and insightful.

Professor at Carnegie University, Doctor Randy Pausch, at 47, died this week-end. He was the teacher (and so many other things) who recorded The Last Lecture video when he knew he only had a short time to live. He did this to leave behind what he had learned for his young children but also for others. The popularity of his video led to an appearance on Oprah, a book, and millions of people being exposed to his ideas. If you have yet to see the video of his lecture, it's worth your time: Randy Pausch's Home Page.

So basically this week-end serendipitously reminded me of two ways to look at a bucket list. One would be like the film where you would think of all the things you have not done and would like to do, some of them might be emotional. The second is what Randy Pausch did where you put down all you have learned through possibly your life story, the wisdom, and lessons you have learned leaving that behind for others to find when they need it.

Thinking about all this, I naturally asked myself what might be on my bucket lists. Where it comes to things to do, I don't think there is anything. Sure there are activities I'd yet enjoy and perhaps some things I might do if I was younger or they were possible; but if I die today, I will feel good about the things I have had in my life. My dreams weren't big ones, and I did what I wanted as I went along. The things that weren't possible, I consider part of my life lessons.

The second type of bucket list, I think that's one of the things a blog can be. We write our ideas, share our lives, what we see, what we think, and it is left behind for as long as the blog exists. Personally I don't believe we are through learning those lessons until the day we die which is the other good thing about a blog. It's an organic way of interchanging accumulated wisdoms with many people.

One of the things I believe was beautifully expressed in The Bucket List and in a song that played while the credits were rolling. I went looking to see if it was on YouTube. To me, this song expresses a life philosophy that I try to follow and one for my blog's bucket list-- Say - John Mayer..