On Bucket Lists

“Hey everyone

I got nowhere to go

The grave is lazy

He takes our body slow”

~ ‘Learning How To Die’, by Jon Foreman

from his album “Winter”,  2008

For those who are not familiar with the term, a ‘bucket list’ is a list of actions or achievements one wants to try and complete before ‘kicking the bucket’.  Since I seem to be failing to get younger with the passage of time, I thought maybe a bucket list of my own was in order. 

The problem with putting this kind of list out as a ‘New Year’s Resolution’ is that once it’s public, people will generally know if you’ve done it or not, and will hold you appropriately accountable.  One of the beauties of a Bucket List is that it’s quite OK to not fulfill it this year.  Or next year.  Just sometime.  The endgame is nebulous.  And of course, once you’re dead (or actively dying, for that matter), no-one’s going to bail you up and ask when you’re expecting to do that skydive.

Bucket Lists seem to be reasonably popular little devices.  A cursory glance through Google search results reveals innumerable internet sites dedicated to the publishing of Bucket Lists from members of the public at large.  You can publish your own list, follow the lists of others, get hints on writing your list, basically organise it all to within an inch of its life.  One site (http://celestinechua.com/blog/whats-on-your-bucket-list-101-things-to-do-before-you-die/) suggests it is akin to “planning ahead all the highlights you want for YOUR whole life”, which to me seems a bit extreme.  Many of my highlights are behind me and I’m most certain that I’ll have many highlights that are unpredictable in their arriving.  No, I prefer it to be a list of some of the stuff I think is achievable for me, without getting into the realms of the ridiculous.

The following list can by no means be considered finite.  There are a couple of things I’ll keep for me just now.

My Bucket List

1. Walk the Kokoda track.

A pilgrimage for many Australians, due to it’s involvement in battles between the armies of Australia and Japan during World War II.  It’s 96 kilometres of harsh trekking through the Owen Stanley Range in Eastern Papua New Guinea, reaching heights of 2,190 metres above sea level, which also gives it an element of physical challenge as well as the obvious historic significance.

2. Get another Tattoo.

I’ve got three at present.  I’d like to get at least one more and have several ideas.

I know some of the more conservative elements of my nearest and dearest have expressed a lack of understanding of the reasons one may want to alter their body on a more or less permanent manner.  It’s even been suggested to me that having tattoos is even something I ought be ashamed of.  I can’t seem to bring myself to that, so I guess that I’m not ashamed is for others to reconcile for themselves.

I followed some basic rules in my body art to reduce the chance of regretting my tattoos at a later age - firstly, I waited till after I was 30 years old, and secondly chose elements that to me are of some permanence.  Each of my current pieces of body art have some significance to me and are reasonably unique.  The next ones will be likewise.

3. Visit New Orleans, particularly the French Quarter.

One of the most intriguing places on Earth would have to be the the ‘Big Easy’, the ‘City Beneath The Sea’, so called due to it being one of the few major cities of the world largely located below sea level.  This fact was one of the reason it suffered such immense destruction at the hands of both Hurricane Katrina and a neglectful George W. Bush.  It was also one of the birthplaces in the early part of the 1900’s of one of the most wonderful and mysterious of music genres - that is Jazz.

I would like to visit this place that birthed something of great beauty through many of its forefathers that found their origins there, legends of the genre like Buddy Bolden, Jelly Role Morton, ‘King’ Oliver, and Satchmo himself, Louis Armstrong.  I’d love a chance to breath the air of the place, immerse myself for a while in its music and magic.

4. Run a marathon.

I started running about 6 years ago, and while I haven’t been doing as much recently as I have in previous years, the ability and desire remains.  I ran a half-marathon a few years ago and the experience was wonderful to the point of giddiness.  I’ve never been, nor will I ever be, an athlete of any description, but crossing the finish line of that particular run in a faster time than I could have hoped for, demolishing a few PB’s along the way, was exhilarating. 

I want to go the next step.  Later this year, after I turn 35, would seem like a neat time for it.

5. See the Western Bulldogs win an AFL Premiership.  

Completely out of my hands, but if I thought wearing my lucky undies would help, I’d do it without hesitation.

Also worth noting is that I’ve changed this particular item from “Captaining the Western Bulldogs to a Premiership” as I am now too old and haven’t played competitive footy since I was 12.  And even then, let’s be frank, not very well.

6. Finish the damned boat.

I started building a wooden kit boat (a scale model of the HMS Endeavour) a few years ago, and it is one of the unfinished projects that one accumulates that remains unfinished.  It looks pretty good so far too.  It waits for a few uncrowded, lazy weekends.

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I could go on, and goodness knows I probably will, but that seems like a nice place to leave it for now.  Perhaps with a little time and inspiration, the list may grow a little.  Of course, the flip side to the notion of bucket lists is that they are predicated on the notion that this current life is the only one worth living for.  A legacy beyond the temporal would seem to be a far loftier goal.  So in the end, I guess my bucket list is less prescriptive and more about what’s fun.