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Good Morning to all.
I was reading fiddlegal's diary the other day about bucket lists---what you still want to do in life. There were some interesting ideas there.
But what I thought I'd do today was look at our retrospective bucket lists---what you wanted to do and what you DID do. To find out what someone REALLY thinks is important to do in life, look at what they've done in life.
What do you want the world to know youve done?
I grew up wanting a life of travel and adventure. And I got a life of, among other things, travel and adventure.
I am a very curious person and I have a lot of energy (still!) That has gotten me into a lot of trouble in my life and its also been very satisfying. I'm very lucky (and happy) just to be alive.
"Curiosity killed the Cat
Satisfaction brought him back."
So here's a partial bucket list of some of the things I decided to do and did.
Learned to dance ( Ballroom, tango, zydeco [my favorite,] several kinds of swing, square, contra)
Long time SCUBA diver (I was an instructor in HI ) Took professional diver course
Still ski black diamond, tho much more sedate
Lived in HI
Lived in CA
Lived in OR
Lived in LA
Lived overseas 4 years in different places
Lived in the country
Lived in big cities (San Francisco, Honolulu and New Orleans
Lived in the burbs (lots of places)
Lived in the mountains
Lived on a tropical beach
Learned another language (Spanish)
Expert with chopsticks
Experienced cook (I do half of it, shopping too)
Showed up for a real shooting war dressed up as a US Army paratrooper and later a Ranger (and a Happy Birthday to the US Army!)
["I wanna be an Airborne Ranger
I wanna live a life of danger..." Army marching song
Been there done that got the t-shirt]
Parachuted (43 times in the army, twice as a civilian)
Learned to kill people in a variety of interesting ways you would just not believe
Learned to rappell 120' from a helicopter into combat and did it(I'm not fooling! and this wasn't the half of it)
Survival School, Panama
Graduated College
Been in Love
Fell out lof love
Been married (currently on 3d)
Been divorced
Worked high iron construction.
Worked offshore oil
Worked as a professional diver
Own my own home and everything I have
Built my own house (and many others)
Was my own boss ( I am 100% unemployable and can show you the paperwork!)
Ran my own business for more than 2 decades
Was a Landlord
Watched my son being born
Raised a child
Have grandkids
Traveled extensively (every continent but Africa so far)
Have now read everything Shakespeare wrote, seen most of it performed.
Saw a Shakespeare play in Stratford upon Avon. (Taming of the Shrew)
Walked the midnight streets of MontMartre
Heard the gondoliers sing on a moonlit night in Venice
Walked the entire length of Omaha Beach
Went back to Vietnam (2003)
Still in good physical shape, tho 63 years old (I still swim 100 miles total per year)
Gave up all major vices except, maybe, possibly, and I'm only suggesting a remote possibility of, just one that tons of people call medicine anyway (works for me! If I ever did it!)
Survived all my many mistakes. I still have all of my fingers and toes, tho many scars. I'm just really lucky, I guess, and I mean that sincerely. My college professor brother cut the end of his thumb off on a table saw. I'd rather be lucky than smart.
That is definitely only a partial list. I look back and I think "Boy I'm glad I did all that.................when I was young!" I 'm sitting here thinking of how I would have visualized myself now when I was young. Old people looked different in my youth, a guy my age would have been sitting around all day with a paunch in a suit. NOBODY went to a gym then but boxers. Old ladies wore old lady dresses, which my mom tells me they don't make any more. I always liked to visualize myself at this age on a tropic island paradise surrounded by dusky beauties. (like Adventures in Paradise)
Be what you would wish to seem was my mantra for a long time. First you visualize--then you actualize, then you fake it 'till you make it. If you always wait untill you're fully ready you won't do much. I finally realized I am the person I always wanted to be and I'm as ready as I'm ever going to get. I yam what I yam and thats all that I yam (Popeye.) Ive only been limited by my imagination.
So thats why my current bucket list has so much golf on it---I've already been as bad as I ever wanted to be.
we all walk around chock full of experiences, the experiences that were your life, that made you what you are today. And we chose it all. So what was on your retroactive bucket list? What do you want to tell the world that youve done already---what you thought important?
As usual I'll be by to grade on spelling, syntax, truth, beauty and wonderfulness or lack thereof, around 0530AM, Decent Time
Be what you would wish to seem and now you may start jabbering your jibber concerning it. 5....4....3....2...1.... Youre on!