Bucket Lists

One of my favorite TV shows is the NBC series “The Blacklist.” It stars James Spader as rouge FBI agent Raymond “Red” Reddington who was on the lam for more than twenty years before turning himself in. In exchange for his continued freedom, he agrees to help the FBI agents in a special, covert unit capture or eliminate international criminals with whom Reddington had associated over the years. In one episode, Reddington and FBI agent, Donald Ressler, are under heavy fire from some bad guys and the situation looks pretty grim. Reddington and Ressler talk:

Donald Ressler: We are not going to live through this.

Raymond ‘Red’ Reddington: I think we will.

Ressler: How?

Reddington: Have you ever sailed across an ocean, Donald…

Ressler: No.

Reddington: …on a sailboat, surrounded by sea with no land in sight, without even the possibility of sighting land for days to come? To stand at the helm of your destiny. I want that, one more time. I want to be in the Piazza del Campo in Siena. To feel the surge as 10 racehorses go thundering by. I want another meal in Paris, at L’Ambroisie, at the Place des Vosges. I want another bottle of wine. And then another. I want the warmth of a woman and a cool set of sheets. One more night of jazz at the Vanguard. I want to stand on the summits and smoke Cubans and feel the sun on my face for as long as I can. Walk on the Wall again. Climb the Tower. Ride the River. Stare at the Frescos. I want to sit in the garden and read one more good book. Most of all I want to sleep. I want to sleep like I slept when I was a boy. Give me that, just one time. That’s why I won’t allow that punk out there to get the best of me, let alone the last of me.

Reddington’s speech sounds like what most of us would call a bucket list—things to do before you die. Another famous illustration of a bucket list was the 2007 feature film of the same name starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Nicholson and Freeman meet in a cancer ward and the prognosis for both was not good. So, they make a run for it and spend most of the movie checking off items on the bucket list and fending off family and friends who want them to return to the hospital.

But, a bucket list doesn’t have to be things done before impending death. It could be what a bride or groom does before getting married, what a recent college graduate does before starting a career, or what a newly-married couple does before starting to raise a family.

How Do You Make Up a Bucket List?

Before we go on, a matter of disclosure. I am not facing impending death nor any of the other situations listed above. I retired from full-time work a while ago and, given the amount of free time I have available, I often think about what I could do.

So, I started looking at some web sites and doing research on how one approaches writing a bucket list. One site called bucketlist.org was full of ideas and self-evaluation tools to help you get started. It listed number of categories such as travel, life experiences, entertainment, sports, education and so on.

Most of the sources suggested taking a self-inventory of likes, skills, experiences and so on before starting your list. But this sounds a lot like pursuing a career choice. Maybe I could write a book, “What Color is Your Bucket List?”

Actually, I have thought of writing a book, but I don’t have a topic in mind that will hold my attention long enough. Maybe some day…

Many experts suggest just thinking and writing down ideas, the classic brainstorming technique. Maybe there was something you started earlier in life but couldn’t finish—an art class, flying lessons, becoming proficient in a foreign language or a sport. But, advancing age and poor health will limit some of the options. Five years ago, my wife and I visited Ireland and climbed the 130+ steps through narrow stone towers to reach the top of Blarney Castle. In another story in this blog, I wrote about my issues with asthma and allergies and advancing age. That climb would be difficult for me now.

As an aside, we chose to not kiss the Blarney Stone—having been warned before that young Irish men consider it a great prank and right of passage to get drunk, climb to the top of the castle and relieve themselves on the famous stone. Thought you might like to know.

My Bucket List

So, you may ask if I have a bucket list and the answer is “sort of.” I’ve drafted a couple of them, including one right before writing this. My list is heavy on travel and attending famous events. But, it is not final and I find myself constantly thinking, “that would be a cool thing to do.” But, finances and other factors—my wife wants to continue working for a while—also limit some of my choices, especially travel.

So I consider myself fortunate that I don’t have to write a final bucket list yet. But, being aged in the upper 60s, I realize I don’t have forever. So it’s time to get going.