Everyone seems to have a bucket list. In fact, too many of us seem to have the same bucket list: Climb Mount Everest ; see the Mona Lisa; visit Versailles; circumambulate Stonehenge; sashay after geisha in Kyoto; float through Venice; ogle the Crown Jewels. The lack of originality has led to the overcrowding of these fabled sites — and a lot of grumbling from the locals.
It’s also put many of the objects and sites at risk: Leonardo da Vinci ’s masterpiece at the Louvre has been assaulted several times. Stonehenge was spray painted by climate activists. Kyoto’s elegantly kimonoed geisha have been harassed by amateur paparazzi dressed in dungarees.
But what’s a “ bucket list ” in the first place? It comes from the title of a 2007 movie about two terminally-ill men (played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman) who travel the world to see and do everything they’ve dreamed of before they die — that is, kick the bucket. It helped that Nicholson’s character is a billionaire who can fund the project. Warner Brothers scored a healthy global profit from the film.
More importantly, the title entered the 21st century lexicon. I’d rather see the world and live. It’s not that I think the aspirations we have in common are a bad catalog; but we’ve just been pursuing them like to-do lists, ticking things off without reflecting about what we’ve done or seen.
Remember: Once you’ve reached a peak destination, you do have to return to everyday life. It would be a sha.