Columnists

Looking Back… Bucket List

Issue 12.11

I watched the movie “The Bucket List” about two terminally ill men who escape from a hospital and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to dos before they die. After watching this film, I wondered out loud why I don’t have a list. Just what am I talking about? A list of things you’d like to do before you kick the bucket. Where did that last expression come from? I looked it up on the Internet. (What did we do in the days before computers when we had to run to the encyclopedias or dictionaries for obscure facts?)

Well, it turned out to be quite ghastly…The idiom kicking the bucket comes from a suicidal technique used years ago. A man would tie a rope around his neck, secure the other end tightly to a tree branch while standing on a bucket. He would then proceed to kick the bucket out from under himself, thus killing himself and…kicking the bucket. (http://www.answerbag.com/)

I suggest #1 on your bucket list should be to write your life history before you kick the bucket naturally. It will help you realize all you have accomplished in your life. Are there still things you’d like to do or accomplish? As a child my dreams were (1) marry my Prince Charming and live happily ever after (still working on that one), (2) be a mother of five girls (I got 4 sons and gave up on that, maybe 5 grand daughters,) and (3) travel throughout the world (I still have a few places left to see including the South Seas, parts of Europe and much of the USA.)

So what good does it do to have a bucket list? Maybe it’s like a final exam to see if you’ve accomplished all you’ve set out to do with your life. It’s definitely says lots about you and your personality, life goals, etc. I would love to know what my dad’s ideas were for his life. I know he wanted to have a flying school service in our small rural town but unfortunately he was killed in an airplane accident before he could accomplish that. He was working on building a television set back in the 1940s and had built several ham radio stations. He was ambitious but unfortunately his life was cut short just before his 29th birthday. Write down what is on your bucket list today. Next time-Religious Feelings

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