I have never composed an actual bucket list — you know, the list of all the goals, dreams and aspirations you hope to accomplish before you die.

Certainly, there are things I have said or thought about wanting to do, like seeing Elton John in concert, which I got to do, by the way.

But to have thoughtfully and methodically written such a list has not happened.

I understand there is a movie starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson called “The Bucket List,” which portrays two men striving to check-off their “must do’s” before they die.

The movie, released in 2007, was a box office success, but for some reason I missed it.

Maybe I should watch the film. It could inspire me to make my own agenda, but then again, maybe not.

Do I really need a bucket list?

What if I make out my list and for whatever reason decided to take something off?

Can you do that?

Also, with my character traits, making a bucket list and not fulfilling it could be a downer on my death bed.

What if sailing the Mediterranean was on my list, and I didn’t get it checked off?

Would this suggest my life was ungratifying or meaningless?

Definitely, we should have goals, dreams and aspirations, but for me making a bucket list feels a bit concrete.

Life, for me, is more fluid, especially since knowing as a teen and young adult that my bucket list would have looked entirely different than if I were to make one now.

However, with all that being said about a bucket list, a few months ago I ran across a little book at the Lorelei Book Store that intrigued me.

It was entitled, “The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die.”

Well, that grabbed my attention. Who wouldn’t want to know the five secrets you must discover before you die, particularly for someone who is on the back half of their life?

Therefore, I proceeded to pull the book off the shelf to see if I could glean a bit more about the manuscript from the blurb on the book jacket.

In big bold print at the top of the cover it read, “Don’t wait until you’re older to become wiser.”

Followed by, “The essential dilemma of modern existence boils down to this: You have limited time on this planet yet unlimited choices about how to spend that time. How are you to live? What really matters?”

The author of the book, Dr. John Izzo, posed these questions along with others to more than 200 folks 60 years of age and older from all walks of life. I was curious to hear what all these people had to say, so I bought the book.

While I have yet to finish reading it, I hope that by the time I do, I will have gained insight from these elders. Maybe I will learn enough to make a different kind of bucket list, one that not only includes watching performers on stage but one that will also serve to broaden my views and responsibilities to life.

In a quote from the author’s prologue, Izzo said, “From the time I was a very young boy I wanted to know the secrets to living well and dying happy. The songs I enjoyed, the movies I watched, and the books I read were always about the search for what really matters. More than anything, I hoped that before I died I would figure out what mattered.”

That’s what I want on my bucket list.

 

Terri Cowart Frazier is a staff writer for The Vicksburg Post. She can be reached at terri.frazier@vicksburgpost.com.