Bucket Shmuck-it

“You don’t have a Bucket List?”, he asked incredulously. “Aren’t there places you want to go and see, or things you want to do before you die?”

I was a little caught off guard so I hoped he wouldn’t ask why I didn’t have one. The subject had never come up for me, ever, anywhere. I had no nutshell answer at the ready.

Now if he asked why I didn’t have a tattoo, I could answer easily. “I can’t think of a thing I’d want permanently etched on my body.”

If I’d been allowed to get a tattoo in 7th grade, what an idiot I’d feel like 50 years later with a Smiley Face, and Alfred E. Neuman from “Mad” Magazine on my person.

But he did ask why, so I had to think fast.

“I don’t like bucket lists because I do what I want when I can. Making a list of things I want to accomplish before I kick the bucket is a surefire way to get my blood pressure up. If I don’t complete the list does that mean I’m a failure? If I complete the list is it time to die? Why set myself up for something stupid like that?”

Sometimes I have a tendency to wreck a conversation.

A similar thing happens to me when asked, “What would you do if you won the lottery?” I hate hypothetical questions truth be told, but prudently I came up with a pat answer for this after taking the BP cuff off for the 90th time.

“I’d pay off our mortgage, pay off my student loan, weatherproof the porch, and support causes that are important to me whether they be organizations, friends, family, do-gooders or people in need.”

Hmmm. Sounds suspiciously like a bucket list.

For some, bucket lists are a way to keep personal wants, goals, desires and dreams organized.

The practice of yoga encourages us to live and be in the moment, aware of who we are and what we have.

What we want, ideally, comes down to what we need.

I suppose there is one thing that appears on my nonexistent list, a big old pair of martini set diamond earrings. (Look them up, they are a thing.)

It seems my earlobes are bigger, in fact my ears seem bigger. Would diamonds help? Do they have to be real? Well diamonds are a girl’s best friend, so Marilyn Monroe sang, and I love that gal.

Cubic Zirconia could work, but I hope they or any diamonds thrown my way are not causing harm to others.

But do I need them?

I guess my bucket list, if I have to have one, would be to make sure that what I want or need isn’t wrecking someone else’s list. Ahimsa, the first Yama, means do no harm.

Namaste- just a grocery list today!