The term “bucket list” became a popular expression after the release of the 2007 movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. They played two terminally ill men who escape from a cancer ward with a wish list of things they want to do before they die. Regardless of how many days we think we have in front of us, it can be good to have goals and dreams that inspire and motivate us to go beyond the ordinary, everyday matters that make up so much of our lives. But I’m not so sure that checking off life events on a list is necessarily the best way to approach life.
When I sat on the veranda of Mount Vernon and looked out across the Potomac River a number of years ago, I fulfilled a dream I had had for many years. There I was, sitting in the same place where George Washington once sat, gazing upon a view that was very much like the one he would have seen in the 18th century. For a long time, one of my goals had been to go to Gettysburg and see Little Round Top, the Peach Orchard and the Wheat Field. After seeing those places, I went to the location of the clump of trees on Cemetery Hill that Pickett’s men had aimed for when they charged across the open field on July 3, 1863. There I was, standing at the very spot that has gone down in history as the “high-water mark of the Confederacy.” On neither occasion, however, did I take a piece of paper out of my pocket, metaphorically or otherwise, and cross off the words “Visit Mount Vernon” or “See Gettysburg.”
A bucket list can be a way to avoid leading a life of quiet desperation and going to the grave with our song still in us. It’s always a good idea to consider anything said by Henry David Thoreau. But at the same time, writing down a list of people to see, places to go and things to do before I die can also be seen as a good idea that has morphed into a cliché. How much are bucket lists a matter of setting goals people really want to accomplish for themselves as opposed to attempts to have the longest list with the coolest items? For many people, myself included, the latter reason might carry at least as much importance as the former. Or to ask that question another way, how long would my bucket list of goals and dreams be if I knew I wouldn’t have the chance to talk afterwards about how I accomplished them? It’s possible my list might be pared down considerably under those circumstances. It seems to me that time spent in trying to convince myself or impress others of my significance is the opposite of what a bucket list is supposed to be all about.
David James Madden