Bucket List

I heard somewhere recently, obviously "somewhere" is a very reliable source, that elderly people are dying less and less from natural causes. They are dying doing the crazy things on their bucket lists. My first thought when I heard that, I'm pretty sure I heard it on the radio, was "How cool is that!"

I have decided this is how I'm going out. The minute I find out that I have a life threatening illness. Or when I hit "that certain age" I am making up the most epic bucket list ever. By the way did you see that movie? It is box office gold. Make sure you bring tissues.

If I go see the doctor and he says you have such and such I am booking a ticket on the nearest plane and going to swim in the Nile. Wrestle alligators. Zip line in the Amazon. I am going out with a bang. Or maybe a whimper. Who cares I'm going to have a blast doing it.

I think I'll swim with the whales. Or the sharks. Or dolphins. Maybe go on a safari in Africa. Stand face to face with an elephant.

The point is I will not go quietly. As Dylan Thomas said:

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377#sthash.z8leaZBK.dpuf

Or as Bob Dylan said (sang?):

I will not go down under the ground

'Cause somebody tells me that death's comin' round

And I will not carry myself down to die

When I go to my grave my head will be high

http://www.metrolyrics.com/let-me-die-in-my-footsteps-lyrics-bob-dylan.html

I will be going out on my own terms. And it will be epic.

(Disclaimer: The reality is someone will probably find my withered body in the obscure section of a library. But that’s cool too)