Last night we had
dinner with a recently widowed friend and began talking about our “bucket lists.”
What do we want to do before we kick the bucket?
Our friend wants to
see Rome and Budapest, cruise the Danube, and visit Australia and New Zealand.
My wife and I have been to Rome, but not the Catacombs, the Basilica of St.
Paul Outside the Wall, the Scavi (St. Peter’s basement), and assorted museums.
Plus we need another dose of Caravaggios and carbonara so Rome is on our list as well along with Portugal's Douro Valley (It's where, among other things, they make Port).
I’d love to fly fish
for trout in Patagonia, ski with our son and his family at Vail and Telluride,
climb the Grand Teton, and improve my guitar playing. And with practice one day
I’ll consistently make a proper beurre
blanc.
We humans need goals,
direction, and hope to survive, a fact that has been proved over and over. Bucket lists give us things to look forward to.
Our lists should probably be more than just travel and experiences. Learning goals,
writing goals, reading goals, spiritual goals, volunteer goals, new skills goals, and more all
go into a full life.
There are two
corporate mottos that I love and have made my own. The first is from North Face, the outdoor
gear and clothing manufacturer: “Never Stop Exploring.” The second is from the John Templeton Foundation: “How little we
know; how eager to learn.”
Ruts are… well, they’re
ruts and shortcuts to a mediocre (at best) life after midlife. Breaking out of
the ruts through goals, aspirations, and curiosity about what's around the next corner is one vital element in a good one.
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