Making Lists of Stuff to do Before You Die

The category of books that list anywhere from 101 to 1000 things to do before you die seems to be expanding. To check, enter "things to do before I die" on Amazon search and see what you come up with. One author even felt it necessary to tell us 100 things we should NOT do before we die. The movie The Bucket List has also popularized the notion we should make a list of stuff we should do before we die.

Some problems, of course, exist in making these lists and working our way through them. The most obvious issue is that we never know for sure when we are going to die. So if we get to the 980th place to see before we die and then pass away, so to speak, have we failed to meet our goal, and what difference will it make if we don't? One author has listed 2001 things to do before we die (Dane Sherwood). I can't even get through a five-item to-do list in less than two years, much less tackle a list of 2001 items.

Such lists might serve a useful purpose in getting us off our duffs and trying a few new things and experiencing a few new adventures to make life more interesting than just watching Regis and Kathy Lee. Older people seem to become increasingly reluctant to do anything different, go anywhere different, or to move outside their comfort zones in any way. For one thing, they keep busy seeing their cardiologist, oncologist, urologist, ophthalmologist, gynecologist, gastroenterologist, other ologists, and dentists, leaving little time for 2001 other things to do.

For right now, my own tentative list consists of the following:
1. Getting the wisdom tooth that has been aching for five days pulled, finally, tomorrow. Until that happens, I don't really care about any other lists of stuff to do.
2. Learning to take better photos.
3. Learning to write more effective prose.
4. Avoiding cleaning out the garage for another year.
5. Finding the remote shutter release for my Canon camera.
6. Getting a family reunion photo book finished for my family for our reunion just finished.
7. Read more books.
8. Avoid cleaning up my den until after we go back to St. George in November.

I might think of a few other things if I put my mind to it. For the most part, we remain focused on our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and seeing whether our tomato plants are actually going to produce tomatoes this year. Maybe I should buy the 2001 things to do list so I can see what I am missing out on. For right now, I can hardly keep up with what I am doing already. Maybe I just need to be doing something totally different.