Tiggerlane at the Neophyte Blogger has asked us to give a Bucket list:
"Have you heard of The Bucket List? Well, that's what I want from you! Make a list of things you want to do before you die. It must be at least five items - and you can make it as long as you desire. Photos are optional. And let's hear about some of the wackiest, most bizarre to-do's on your Bucket List!"
I signed up as soon as I saw this assignment, thinking, "oh, a piece of cake!" Not. Perhaps, as for most of my life, I am taking things too seriously....ahhh, stop taking things so seriously!
Let me preface this by saying that I work in the Bucket-List-Inducement Field (oncology). Interestingly, although I have the "honor" of telling people, "Sir, it's time for you to working on that bucket list", I rarely see people turn around and change their lives. Obviously, at times, the person is too ill from the cancer to make like a bucket, but often, I believe people just want to be, without adding the stress of finishing goals that were not attainable when they were healthy to those precious months before they die. There are the requests: living to see someone graduate, marry, etc. but but big trips and dropping out of planes usually does not happen.
My father was diagnosed with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer 19 months ago. That's a disease whose median survival is less than one year. In my world this was very rude on multiple fronts 1) Dad was a life long non-smoker who grew up in a house of non-smokers, 2) he lived the healthy life before it was fashionable to do so, and 2) I work in the field of oncology so it is NOT supposed to happen to my family (If only that sort of magical thinking worked. It doesn't. I know.) Interestingly, except for the stress and depression that I see in my mother (my parents were high school sweethearts/life long partners), I have seen no bucket-list like behavior -- if anything, there retirement travels were curtailed because the chemotherapy left him feeling so drained, and now, the cancer itself just saps him of most good energy.
I guess this is my way of saying that I want to try to live my life so that I don't have a BL, because often times, it is too late by the time you know that you need to activate it.
That being said....
1. I want to swim in the nude in a large WARM body of water.
I have always found water very relaxing....but I am very conservative so skinny dipping was never on my list of activities. Perhaps the Carribean (although I don't see how I would get my whippets down there).2. I would like to rent a house on the beach (with my hounds)....
3. I would like to have travel time -- no place exotic (I am quite boring and conservative; therefore, my failure to fulfill the request of this FM). Once again, I would only want to travel if I could be with my hounds. Six dogs in a van gets close, but they are used to it. People think I am a little crazy for the trips that I already take. Usually, those trips are with the goal of making a race meet. If I was on my Bucket List time, I would hope to be able to travel to see friends and the country stopping for photos along the way.....however, only if I could take the hounds. Right now, the pursuit of kibble money hampers my travel plans.4. I would install a fountain so I could hear water flowing. (There seems to be a water theme, here).
5. I just don't know.....I would like to change my personality, lose the angst that haunts me, be less of a shy person, find my soul-mate, etc. etc. But that is something that I am always trying to overcome.
What can I say? I am boring. I have no desire to hurdle my body through space and time. I find extreme discomfort when I move out of the known.... I am shy so throwing myself in the path of a celebrity has absolutely no interest for me (and is one of those angst inducing activities). I do hope that when it comes time, there isn't a Bucket List. That time is just too late.
So...
Hug your hounds....
AND
Empty your buckets!
Addendum: I always hate when I think of something AFTER writing it or that something that I have written will be mis-interpreted.
In no way do I want people to think that smokers deserve or have "earned" lung cancer if they are unfortunate enough to get it. Cancer is something that NO ONE deserves, no matter what their life style. We do know that certain cancers have cigarette/tobacco exposure as significant risk factors.
Lung cancer is uncommon in non-smokers, but is becoming more common. I believe that is a testament to the toxic environment in which we live. Ahhh, another list item: plant more trees!
