Things to do Before I Die

Since about my late thirties or early fourties, since the idea of my own mortality became real to me, (this came about as the result of a diagnosis of bicuspid aortic valve disease) I have kept a list, the kind that has now commonly become know as a bucket list, though I have never used that term. It is not that I have anything against the term, I appreciate the wit, but it has always seemed to me too light a designation for something I feel to be so important. It makes it easy to dismiss. I have always called my list “Things to do Before I die”. I just feel that this creates more of a sense of urgency. I believe that seeing those words written across the top of a page in bold letters makes what is written below seem more important.

What got me on this today is that yesterday, while going through some note books in my home office, I came across just such a list from 2013, ten years ago. I was a little startled at first. Though I have written many such lists over the years, updating when I felt updating was required, they were all in the same note book. I could not even remember making this one. It is dated February 3, 2013, which means I would have written it a little over a month before meeting my current wife, Kim.

After I got over my initial shock of discovery I became excited about this unexpected find, a glimpse into the mind of my younger self, when I was a mere boy of 48.

In the above photo, which shows the title and heading of my list, the last couple of words of the first two items are just visible, these are, Climb Mount Kilimanjaro, and Learn to speak Spanish. Climb Kilimanjaro has been on my list since I read Hemingway’s The Snow’s of Kilimanjaro more than 30 years ago, and is still there. It has been on my list since before I had a list. I am not sure about, learn to speak Spanish, but it may have had something to do with number seven on that list, for which what I think are obvious reasons, is not on my current list, and that is to Participate in the running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain.

The list is 27 items long (much shorter than my current list, which I have on an excel spreadsheet on my laptop, and which seems to grow almost daily) and I was pleased to see that I had actually completed a few of the items on it, though slightly saddened by the number that were not completed, some of which had been carried forward from even earlier lists. It is mind blowing to realize just how quickly ten years can go by, and how easy it is to put things off, believing that there will always be time.

Of the three items I did manage to check off two were of such importance to me that I would actually consider their completion the culmination of a spiritual quest. One was to visit the grave of my favorite poet, Robert Frost, and the other was to visit Ernest Hemingway’s home in Key West, Florida. The third completed item is, row in a regatta. Being 48 years old when I added this, and never having rowed a skull in my life, let alone in competition, the completion of this item must have seemed highly unlikely to me at the time, but life is funny and unpredictable.

Just over a month after writing this list I met my wife. As it turned out, she used to be a competitive rower. Further, her best friend also was, and still is, a competitive rower. Five years later, in 2018, the Royal St. John’s Regatta, North America’s oldest continuous sporting event was celebrating its 200th anniversary. My wife’s friend, who has a lifetime association with the regatta, was involved with the planning of the special events, as well as being one of the commentators for the television coverage.

https://howtheyplay.com/misc/The-Royal-St-Johns-Regatta-the-Oldest-Annual-Sporting-Event-in-North-America

One of the planned events was a fun regatta to be held the Sunday before the actual regatta. Races were to be held in various categories and any business or organization was welcome to enter a team. One of the race categories was media. There were entries from two radio stations, the local tv station, and local newspaper, and another team made up of local freelance writers. My wife, a food blogger, was invited to join this team, as was I. Our team was given the name “The Nearly Dead Poets and Writers Society”. Though I was the only one on the team who had never rowed before I believe I held my own, and our team finished second in a field of six. So, something I must have believed to be near impossible when I was 48, and that I could not even remember adding to a list, got to happen when I was 53, and I did not even realize that I had checked off a “Things to do Before I Die” item until I found the list yesterday.

Items that have dropped off my list over the years, besides the Running of the Bulls, include, go storm chasing in tornado alley, and go treasure hunting off the Florida Keys. Others have remained on my list, and a few that I had forgotten about, such as swim with dolphins, have been added back. And though my list is ever changing, with new items being added all the time, and other items that, for whatever reason, no longer seem important or relevant, being taken off, I hope that when I review my list in another ten years my success rate has greatly improved. And if you are keeping your own list, be it a “bucket list” or “things to do before I die”, or whatever you choose to call it, I wish you the greatest success. Our lives may be finite but that doesn’t mean our dreams have to be.

Cheers!

Stephen