RELIGION: What’s on my Bucket List?


I've heard of bucket lists for years but never thought much about them. Several years before Dad graduated to heaven, he said one of the last things on his bucket list was to take a ride in a hot-air balloon. I could be mistaken, but I don't think he took that ride.

So what in the world might be on my bucket list?

The term bucket list was popularized by a movie of the same name starring actors Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. It was released in 2007. The phrase bucket list comes from the phrase 'to kick the bucket,' which is a figure of speech meaning 'to die.' Many folks have heard of the term prior to the release of that film, but the movie made it popular.

But what's a bucket? The original term was probably bucker.

Dating from the early 1700s, the word beam denotes the transverse bar from the ends of which the scales of a balance are suspended, and the literal sense of the phrase is that one scale is so lightly loaded that it flies up and strikes the beam. In jolly old England, the beam or crossbar was referred to as a bucker and people eventually began calling it a bucket. Why? Perhaps some goofy person made the "r" look like a "t" and no one caught the error? I don't know.

So, where did we get the phrase, to kick the bucket?

In England, when pigs were to be killed, they were hung by their hind-legs with a rope tied to a pulley on the bucker, or bucket, and oxen walked a few yards pulling the rope to haul the pig up.

The pig began yelling and kicking fiercely, and as it reached the crossbar, its feet kicked the crossbar, or bucker, or bucket, that it was tied to. Therefore, to kick the bucket is to be hung from the bucket by the heels until dead. And in modern usage, to kick the bucket means to die.

Now we can define the phrase bucket list.

Using the current concept of a bucket that can contain anything from milk to sand, the phrase bucket list is used to describe things a person wants to do or accomplish before they die.

People often create a bucket list as they near retirement age, striving to make time to do some of the things they may have put off in their younger years due to work or family commitments. While it's become common practice for pensioners to pursue their bucket list dreams, a growing number of them find themselves in the hospital with serious injuries brought on by these activities or escapades. Be careful, people.

Now, for the big question: What is on my bucket list?

I am not given to wishful thinking so that makes it difficult. I've done everything I've ever wanted to do. Perhaps not to the degree to which I had aspired, but I've accomplished my basic goals. I'll continue doing what I enjoy doing: Write, format books, visit kids and grandkids, teach from the Bible, help people understand life.

I have not lived an empty life. Instead my life is full and running over, but several friends and relatives kept asking. So, what do I want to do prior to graduating to heaven?

The first item is: Continue to enjoy life and make new memories with my Precious Carol.

Secondly, I want to finish the book on Abraham and Melchizedek that I've been working on since 1980.

Several of my grandkids and I have a book to write together.

I'd like to learn to play the baritone. I've had one for years, but now it's time to get it out.

I'd like to learn to play the tuba. Don't have one yet, but Brandon at Said (pronounced Sāde) Music Company in Tulsa, Okla., said he would help me get one for a decent price. However, I've been told by an authoritative individual that I need to master the baritone first. (I told Carol that I'll get right on it.)

Three more books are on the drawing board, and I probably need to finish them.

So, where I said earlier that "my life is full and running over," I might need a bigger bucker -- I mean bucket -- to hold all that I'll try to do.

Okay dear readers, it's your turn. Have you stopped to think about it? What's on your bucket list?

-- S. Eugene Linzey is an author, mentor, and speaker. Send comments and questions to [email protected]. Visit his web site at www.genelinzey.com. The opinions expressed are those of the author.