With The Bucket List having recently played, a movie with Jack Nicholas and Morgan Freeman running around the world checking off items on their to-do list before they kick the bucket, it’s gotten people thinking about what their bucket list would look like. Sarah over at Teetotaled asked me to share 5 things I’d like to do before I kick the bucket.
I have to smile at a certain predictableness to my list now, as opposed to what would have been on it when I was younger. Then, it would have been all about daring-do and adventure. All done at high speed. As I’ve matured, it’s become more about (mostly) quietly going the distance…
1. Start an elementary school that would mark the beginning of changing how this country viewed education.
2. Live on a few hundred well-fenced acres, with no neighbors, so my dogs could run safely all day and I wouldn’t have to worry about whether Graidy felt like having a bark-fest with the coyotes at 2 am.
3. Have a job like Bill Moyers on his show, Now. I think he’s one of the best interviewers — ever. It would be way too much fun to pick up the phone and know that anybody I wanted to talk to would be thrilled to have me call.
4. Write a book that found mainstream success.
5. Go on a really long walkabout.
What would be on your bucket list?
I definitely want to write that best-selling, but well written and thought provoking, book! A really long walkabout sounds good too!
I’d like to teach in your school!
Ummm…I have always wanted the hundred acres.. I would love to build our own home on it – and when I say build it, that’s what I mean, build it with our own hands – not have it contracted out. It might be a straw bale house….ahh and it will have an outdoor solar shower.
What a great list. I would like to build a house on a large piece of land and grow my own food. And have an entire acre devoted to flowers.
We have one in common :) I’ll do mine one of these days and I’d like to see the film.
I was wondering if anyone would mentioned the zoo at my place, I have mixed feelings about those places. Do you read Sun Magazine? Last month had a thought provoking article on the subject.
hrmmm… I smell a meme in the making…
must blog this
Great list Karen. It would be interesting to make these lists every 5 or 10 years and see how they change, or what is checked off as done! :) I might have to start doing that myself.
I can certainly relate to your #4, Karen. Of course, if I continue to put off actually sitting down and writing, it will remain on my bucket list forever.
I have my own list too. I may have to steal this post and do it on my blog. I love your list. I have writing a book and living in the major country on mine as well.
It’s so funny you should write this.
I have taken the time that my husband & I are apart (temporary assignment for him in your neck of the woods) to work on a lot of things. And one of the things I was doing recently was trying to come up with a list of 100 things to do before I die. I didn’t actually connect it with the Bucket List (doh!) but my husband did.
And I actually found it wasn’t easy to come up with that many things! Not that I’ve done so much in my life, really, but I’m only at about 40 so far.
A few on mine were:
1. Have an animal sanctuary, with a staff to handle the day to day running, so I could help when I wanted to, but still have a life.
2. Attend a dog camp
3. Have a jacuzzi
4. Travel to Australia and New Zealand
5. Help people to see that there’s more to having animals than providing fresh food, vet care, and a place to eliminate. That yes, it’s work to take the time to clicker train cats, for instance, or do agility with your dogs, but the bond you create in exchange is so worth it. I just came up with that one . . .
I think I’m having so much trouble at the moment because I achieved one dream in my life, but I’m struggling now to figure out what I’m meant to do with the rest of my life.
It’s funny how your bucket list changes as you get older isn’t it? There is still one thing on mine that I think will always remain though and that is to travel the world.