The one with The Bucket List

2009 is here!  The year of hope!  The year of change!  The year of Section 2!  The year of living in an RV!  It’s finally here!

2009 started out in true Section 2 fashion when I woke up, fed the dogs and then immediately drove my little self (and John) down the road in the biggest vehicle I’ve ever been in, much less controlled.   Diesel engines really like to talk.  They grumble and gripe and truly, sound a little high maintenance for my taste.  They remind me of those overly annoying men at the gym who insist on letting everyone around them know that they’re lifting weight by grunting, groaning, gasping and in general making as much noise as is humanly possible, none of which can be classified as attractive even in creepy world.  I’ve often wished that I had the guts to go running over to one of these attention seeking bozos and in a very worried voice ask them if they are ok and if they need a spotter or some other help since they obviously took on more weight than they can handle.  They want attention, right?  Might as well cater.  Sadly, I never mustered up the energy.  Anyway, back to the truck.

I find riding in the truck to be a much scarier experience than driving it.  Don’t get me wrong, driving something that big did worry me a great deal at first.  Once you actually sit your hiney in the driver’s seat though … it doesn’t seem so big.   It still requires a much different driving style than I am used to but that’s a pretty low hurdle to jump over.  Life is about adventure, after all.

Which brings me to my bucket list.  One of the first movies that John and I watched in the new year happened to provide a bit of insight and a big reminder as to why we decided to transition to Section 2.  I never heard of The Bucket List - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0825232/   Apparently, it came out just a little less than a year ago but it caught my attention because it stars Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.  I love both Jack and Morgan so it seemed like a good choice as we stood in front of the movie cube at HEB.  All I knew was that they played characters who were terminally ill.  What the heck.  For $1, it’ll be worth it I figured.  And was it!

Both men find themselves dying from Cancer, sharing the same hospital room, despite their polar opposite lifestyles and personalities.  Typical Hollywood script so far…  Jack’s character possessed unimaginable riches (including the hospital where the two men met) but no family/friends to add meaning to his life.  Morgan’s character lacked money but found unmatched value in the relationships he cultivated with his family members over the years.  After receiving nearly identical death sentences, which may have been the only thing these two men had in common, they decide to travel the world and finally begin experiencing life.  Morgan’s character inspired the idea when he began developing a Bucket List - a list of things he wanted to do before he kicked the bucket.  Strangely,”Pay my bills”, “Work 50 hour weeks”, “Buy a fancy car” and “Live in a big old house” never made the list.  When faced with a true death sentence, both men chose their Bucket List items carefully and with a mindset unlike those of us without the knowledge of when our last day will arrive.  The most interesting thing to me was that the items they so carefully placed on their list came flooding to them effortlessly.  That is not to say that their list items were completely thoughtful or altruistic or unselfish.  However, each item involved an experience.  Something that each man wanted to DO in life.  And the two men did not sit around, staring at each other saying, “I just can’t think of anything I’d really like to do.” or “I really shouldn’t, I need to get back to work.”

I found it very interesting that the Universe gave each character exactly what they asked for even though it wasn’t technically what they asked for.  Yes, the Universe enters here as well and trumps humanity’s greedy desires.  Here’s an example.  Jack’s character wrote down “Kiss the most beautiful girl in the world.”  Of course, the true desires behind this Bucket List item were far from honorable.  However, Jack’s character was able to scratch it off his list when he kissed his young granddaughter (I’d say about 3 or so years old) having never met her before.  He and his daughter grew apart over the years and he never even knew a grandchild had been born.  The Universe is sneaky, I do say!

Section 2 is all about our own personal Bucket Lists.  It’s about experiencing life.  It’s about creating memories and knowing that if I, God forbid, receive a 6 - 12 month death sentence I will be ready.  I won’t have to squeeze an entire life’s worth of meaningful experiences into a matter of days.  Looking back proudly on my life, remembering all the experiences I shared with others, laughing about all those mishaps that were far from funny when they happened but now seem like a TV sitcom from years back … that’s how I want to spend my final days whether I know they are my final days or not.

The funny thing about all this is I still sometimes stop to ponder how I got to this mindset.  Was this mindset part of me all along?  Did I fail to see it or did I deny its existence?   Was it just something that had to evolve in me over the years?  It seems a predisposition to this type of belief system must have lived within me all these years but I NEVER, in all my days of dreaming up a life for myself, pictured this.  In fact, living in an RV, traveling around experiencing the world around me might be considered the polar opposite of the life I planned to build for myself.  I’ve never liked to travel.  I’ve always aspired to be an “achiever” - whatever that is.  I never quite understood the hippy way of life.  I guess I just feel incredibly grateful and overwhelmingly humbled that whatever force created this change chose me.  Some feelings just can’t be described by words and I think that my excitement, my humility, my amazement and my complete and total confidence that this new life is truly what I am all about will never be described in words.  As sure as I have always been that the life I dreamed of and have been working for the last 30 years was the life for me, I am infinitely more sure that Section 2 is truly what I desire.  Society may not look at me with eyes of wonderment when I tell them I’m a gypsy instead of a Software Engineer but I know, with more certainty than I’ve ever had for anything in life, that when my last days come I will not wonder why I spent so much time in the office.  When I leave this planet I will leave having known and experienced this planet and this life.  I only get one shot … unless reincarnation really does exist … so I might as well do it right this time around!

This entry was posted on Sat, Jan 03 2009 at 21:28 and is filed under Vanessa's Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.