Kicking the Bucket List

[babylonsister]

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/kicking-the-bucket-list?utm_source=tny&utm_campaign=generalsocial&utm_medium=facebook&mbid=social_facebook

Cultural Comment
September 11, 2014
Kicking the Bucket List
By Rebecca Mead

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The concept of the bucket list—places one wants to visit, experiences one wants to undergo, and accomplishments one wants to master before dying—has gained widespread cultural currency, and that the President should talk of having one should not be surprising. (One does wonder at the downgrading of his aspirations, from “Become President” and “Eradicate Al Qaeda” to “Have dinner with Renzo Piano” and “Tour the Colosseum.”) Exactly who coined the phrase is obscure, but the term entered the popular consciousness decisively in 2007, with the release of the movie “Bucket List.” Starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as geriatric terminal-cancer patients who undertake an implausible valedictory tour of excess—skydiving, visiting the Taj Mahal, and getting to the foothills of Everest—the film grossed more than a hundred and seventy-five million dollars, despite scathing reviews. The idea rapidly spread to a younger generation: in 2010, MTV’s “The Buried Life” featured three fresh-faced Canadian guys travelling across America and checking items off their list, among them “Streak a stadium and get away with it,” “Throw the most badass party ever,” and “Spend a night in jail.”

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This is the YOLO-ization of cultural experience, whereby the pursuit of fleeting novelty is granted greater value than a patient dedication to an enduring attention—an attention which might ultimately enlarge the self, and not just pad one’s experiential résumé. The notion of the bucket list legitimizes this diminished conception of the value of repeated exposure to art and culture. Rather, it privileges a restless consumption, a hungry appetite for the new. I’ve seen Stonehenge. Next?

What if, instead, we compiled a different kind of list, not of goals to be crossed out but of touchstones to be sought out over and over, with our understanding deepening as we draw nearer to death? These places, experiences, or cultural objects might be those we can only revisit in remembrance—we may never get back to the Louvre—but that doesn’t mean we’re done with them. The greatest artistic and cultural works, like an unaccountable sun rising between ancient stones, are indelible, with the power to induce enduring wonder if we stand still long enough to see.

[Enrique]

1. "Become president"

from “Become President” and “Eradicate Al Qaeda” to “Have dinner with Renzo Piano” and “Tour the Colosseum.”

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. The bucket list concept strikes me as incredibly self-centered.

It's 'me, me, me'. Sure, you could create a bucket list full of items like 'Get 100 impoverished children glasses', but let's face it, what you actually see are nine year olds with bucket lists about firing uzis. And even if you did create that 'altruistic' bucket list, it encourages you to treat altruism like a game, human beings as merely a box to be checked off, not individuals to be helped because they need help.

I do not need to spend my life seeking out new experiences simply for the sake of having done them. Experiences should serve to cause me to grow in my ability to help create a better world, a more peaceful one, a sustainable one.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

4. Self-centered? SELF-CENTERED?

Having had cancer, and hoping it doesn't return, I can assure you that the concept of a "bucket list" has special meaning for a lot of people.

It's simply the things I would like to do or places I would like to go someday.

A bucket list reminds us that time might be short, to prioritize the things we want to do, and to start doing them.

Self-centered? Wanting to see the Grand Canyon is selfish? Yeah, I guess so. I'm freaking HUMAN! It's MY LIFE. MY SELF.

[LisaLynne]

6. Yeah, I don't know that the writer of this article ...

quite gets the concept. As I posted below, to me, it's about realizing we don't have all the time in the world and that if we keep putting everything off until "tomorrow", we may find "tomorrow" doesn't come for us.

[FSogol]

3. I feel sorry for the dopes that think you have to travel to the Louvre or Stonehenge to see art or

something ancient. Art, natural, and ancient objects are all around us. Turn off electronic devices and open your eyes.

[LisaLynne]

5. I don't know ...

This article seems sort of silly. I mean, the thing is, there are probably things all of think we would really like to do, but it's always being put off. I think the concept is more about acknowledging that we don't have an infinite amount of time on this planet and if there are things we're thinking we'd like to experience, maybe we should make a plan and start doing some of them. I never thought it was meant to preclude the things we do on a regular basis, like visit local museums or whatever the writer thinks it means, but instead make actual plans to do some of the things we could only, due to time, circumstance, or finances, do once in our lifetimes.

[Godhumor]

7. I am not going to hold it against someone for wanting unique experiences

Assuming we only get one shot at life, why not make it a point to see or do new things when you can? I checked the biggest item from my list years ago (live in a foreign country), and I definitely have ideas for after I retire in 25 years.