July 24 2024 - Summertime Bucket Lists

 

We'd better get doing things that are memorable in the summer.  Summertime is a time for fun.   So what are some funny things that would be in a person's "bucket list".  Summer has us reconsider all those "serious"  and "self-important" bucket list ideas - you know banzai skydiving, bungee jumping, walk the entire wall of China - well maybe not that one as it would actually take some time to complete and we'd be well past summer.. But what about these? Call someone to tell them you can't talk right now Have an argument with a mannequin at a store Hire two private investigators to investigate each other Only speak in song lyrics for a day Most of theorems on the  list are unpleasant - it is HERE.  That's because it is composed of pranks.  Questionable ones would get a person into various kinds of trouble.  But then summertime is a better time for pranks than winter.  We can cherry pick through the dozens of offerings and make up a summertime list: 50 Easy Things You Can Check Off Your Bucket List Today Birthday Bucket List: 60 Fun Things to Do on Your Birthday! Best Friend Bucket List: 50 Fun Things to Do With Your BFF Fashion Bucket List: 36 Must-Do Goals for Every Lover of Style Weird Food Bucket List: 60 Strange Foods From Around the World At Home Bucket List: 50 Fun Things to Do Without Leaving the House On the other hand, bucket lists have a purpose - they are a code phrase for a plan, a schedule and a set of activities.   "They teach us about ourselves and what is important to us, not what society says should be important to us. The act of creating a bucket list takes us out of our comfort zones and throws us into a realm of possibilities and questions." "A bucket list is an attempt to make life memorable and is consistent with Daniel Kahneman's peak-end theory, which holds that what people remember from hedonic events are their peaks. No peaks - no memories, or at least not very crisp ones." There are reverse bucket lists (looking at what you've already done", the bucket list effect (delaying things till retirement), annual lists vs D lists (before you die).  You can get a bucket list template to get is all done faster.   And then you won't miss out on the key memorable moments of summer.  Here's a hazy summer morning picture - James Park gardens in Toronto from a few years ago. This would be the kind of day where the bucket list wouldn't be considered.

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Oct 7 2023 - That Bucket List

 

I am bothered by the phrase the bucket list.  The term is attributed to Justin Zackham, The Bucket List movie screen writer who made a list of things to do before he "kicked the bucket".    The part that is bothersome to me is that a person creates a list of things to do and then what?  Do they create a plan and timeline to accomplish them or do they "put them in a bucket" to show around to people or maybe consider doing them later. There seem to be a lot of travel items in published bucket lists.  And sky-diving at age 90. So many ideas on bucket lists seem exaggerated (hold a shark) and expensive/extragant to accomplish (See Churchill Polar Bears or Visit the Galapagos Islands). And then they are presented as check-off lists for "things to do" that someone has thought of. What was your summer bucket list?  Your movie bucket list?  Your travel bucket list?  Where do these bucket lists take us?  Psychology Today usually provides some ideas on these topics.  The article, written in 2011 wants us to know that "it is an attempt to make life memorable.  Bucket lists, if accomplished, set memories in place that structure life as remembered. Secondly it can be an attempt to make life meaningful, depending on the specific item."  That depending on part relates to "whether items would connect people to something larger than themselves, typically other people and their welfare."  The author says that items such as getting a tattoo struck him as narcissistic.   I guess that's my point as well.  They look like bragging lists of things people can think of that would make them special and extraordinary.   "... a bucket list is not about dying but about living, and my chief objection to the phrase is simply that it is misleading. I do not think that most people create such lists with their imminent death in mind. Consider this stringent criterion: If you knew with certainty that you would die tomorrow, what would you do today? Would you really choose to spend your last day getting a tattoo?" This seems to lead to the big question:  What is life about? The bucket list phenomenon says life Is about making notable memories. That seems like it might be good input.  Too bad about the name.   This leads to another way to look at the Up Against the Wall Series - a bucket list of check boxes.

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