My Bucket Lists So Far

The shooting spree at the gun range with my friend Dan was watershed inspirational. I began the day without a useful bucket list. By the end of the day a new one was under construction.

It would be a lie to say there was an original list. But I've given some thought to what should'a been there. 

Top of the list was travel in central Asia. The idea originated when I, when 12, read a book called The Asiatics by Frederic Prokash. It chronicled the journey of a young man across Asia in the 1920s. I said to myself "that sounds cool" and memory filed it. Nine years later in late June 1971 I was in Seville backpacking across Europe, I met a couple of French guys who were headed overland to Nepal. So guess what, when I got to Istanbul and saw a flyer promoting a four day bus ride to Tehran I jumped at the opportunity and traveled across Asia on my own. I saw Kabul, Kathmandu and the Taj Mahal from the bottom up. That is on a dollar a day. 

Another flyer got me a bucket list checkmark in 1973 when I was living in Ottawa and saw a flyer at work advertising skydiving for beginners. Within a couple of weeks I had my first and only two jumps under my belt.

One more flyer item. In 1990 Margie and I were in Lyford Key in the Bahamas getting certified to scuba dive. A checkmark on its own. A flyer on the wall of the dive shop promoting a shark dive caught my eye. I got turned on and the next day another bucket list checkmark in the bag. 

So far because I responded to flyer invites I see that I am more reactive than proactive. I suppose my brain has a bucket list lobe, that stores my list out of sight, but responds to opportunities put in front of me. I can say something appeared on my list when it was easy to say "yes I'll do that". This likely is related to issues I've had with impulse control. 

So what else was bucket list worthy in the first half of my life.

This one is really post hoc, esoteric and opportunistic. During my first trip to Israel while touring the Church of the Holy Sepulcher I found myself alone in the lowest crypt of the church. Closest to ground zero where Jesus was crucified and buried first. That's not bucket list for me but carving my initials in the centuries old wooden beams next to the tortured letters others had dug into the wood, some more than a thousand years old, well that's on the list. I'm glad I had a pen knife with me.

I've been a guest on TV discussion shows,  invited as an expert. Check.

I've had articles published in business publications. I was even paid once; my first article in the Report on Business. Check.

I was a judge at the CHIN Bikini contest for nine years. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. 

My second trip overseas in 1972 produced a checkmark. My intention was to spend the Christmas holiday hitchhiking around Spain but when I was offered a ride to Morocco I said "sure" and ended up in Goulimine a town at the western edge of the Sahara desert. 

I've been on eleven father son golf trips with my son Stephen. That's special because I don't remember even one time I was alone with my dad.

I've been studying Torah, albeit haphazardly, for the last couple of years. Sounds cool. Hard thinking. Check. 

And I suppose the gun range shooting spree  was an original list item that didn't get done early but spurred me to get back in the game.

So what's on the new list.

Already accomplished is a ride on the Yukon Stryker the newest dangerous roller coaster at Canada's Wonderland. That entered my list after I read about it in the paper. Check. 

Still to be done: Timbuktu, ride a motorcycle, jet ski, break 80, have dinner at the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, enjoy a class about the teachings of C. S. Lewis, learn to play Heart 'n Soul on the piano. 

And, oh yeah, get one of these memoirs published.