I'll get to it later |
In a New
York Times op-ed piece last week, Clyde Haberman wrote about our fondness for
compiling lists of things we’d like to do or see before we die.
That old
bugbear, “a new study,” showed that 91 percent of us have made a “bucket list.”
Haberman marvels at the nine percent who have not. “Are we to believe that
nothing in their basket of wishes is unfulfilled?” he wonders snarkily.
Why is
this hard to believe? Is it so remarkable that some of us, in fact, may have
never had a basket, and don’t have a bucket? While Haberman may think we need
to live a little, could it be, possibly, that some or all of the toothless
tenth of those surveyed have no particular desire to go down kicking, having decided,
for one reason or another, that they’ve lived enough already?
Haberman
does mention the reverse bucket list,
comprised of things the compiler has no intention of ever doing—why not call it
the _uckit list?—such as climbing
Mount Everest, visiting Las Vegas, reading Proust, or meeting the Dalai Lama. (I
suppose it would be helpful to carry such a list around with you as you grow steadily
older and more forgetful, just in case someone invites you to climb Mount
Everest and you’re tempted to accept.)
Haberman
makes an odd statement: “Perhaps not surprisingly, those who put stock in
religion and spirituality were more likely to compile such a (bucket) list than
those of little faith.” Why is this not surprising? Shouldn’t the non- or
irreligious, being more likely not to believe in another life, be more prone to
want to live it up while they can?
Scuba diving
and appearing on Dr. Phil head up my reverse bucket list. What’s on yours? Your comments are welcome.
For help with your bucket list, of whatever variety, go here.
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