My bucket list has nothing to do with the things I would like to experience or see before I die. It is more about what recognitions I would like to achieve while I am alive.
A Nobel Prize would be nice.
Or an Oscar.
And an Oscar. That’s better. Receiving both would be great.
A Beautiful Mind-genius gal with a bit less beautiful mind and a Hollywood-beautiful body instead.
Nah, I am just messing with you.
My list is actually about what I would like to leave behind me - what I would like to be remembered for after I’ve gone.
So I am coming down the Earth, or the Earth as I know it, filmwise:
If you haven’t seen “The Bucket List” yet, and you are reading this post because you are looking for some list items that will allegedly bring joy to your life, you may want to give the movie a chance -without expecting too much.
Starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, it is about two terminally ill men who prefer to tick off the items on their bucket list instead of staying in a hospital bed and waiting for death to come to them. Since it is a movie, of course one of them is a billionaire and he is willing to pay the expenses of this little adventure from the Taj Mahal to the Serengeti.
I, on the other hand, can’t help thinking that experience is being highly overrated these days. I don’t mean these very days of course -no one is experiencing anything anymore, so we can’t stress the importance of experience enough. Yet weirdly enough, even before the pandemic, haven’t most people already stopped enjoying an experience to pose for the camera (often their own) for Instagram while praising present-moment awareness all at the same time.
So in my opinion, do as “The Bucket List” says, not as it does. You don’t need to take people to dinner at Chevre d'or in France in order to bring joy in their lives after all.
It's difficult to understand the sum of a person's life... Some people will tell you it's measured by the ones left behind. Some believe it can be measured in faith. Some say by love... Other folks say life has no meaning at all. Me, I believe that you measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you.
And me, I believe that you measure yourself by the choice of people you measure yourself against (and I also want very much to believe that this sentence makes some sense in English:). You must measure yourself up against the people you admire.
I admire Beatrix Potter!
If you haven't heard about her before, she was a writer and illustrator best known for her children books featuring animals. She was also a conservationist and natural scientist who donated 4000 acres of farmland to the British people through a land preservation trust.
There are genuinely creative bloggers on Hive, some of whom, I am sure, will bring joy in children's lives through their stories and illustrations.
So, after a bucket-loads of waffling, here is the one and only item on my bucket list:
• Set up a land preservation trust and donate a remarkable acre of farmland to the coming generations.