What is on YOUR bucket list?

Not a bucket list fan, but one of the more illuminating questions I asked myself recently, was what are the things I will regret having not done in the long, medium and short term. Not that I'm a person that regrets, but more that the most important things can sometimes slip between the cracks in favour of more glamorous things.
 
Already ran the NYC Marathon and finished under 5 hours without any real training. I was 49 years old and a friend who was too ill to race gave me his bib so I could run in his place. I only had one full day to get ready. Basicall I couldn't even walk the next day.

I want to live past 94 just to prove to my dad that I'm more stubborn than him. He was a poor illiterate illegal Chinese immigrant who jumped ship in New York harbor in the late 20' or early 30's.

I want to own a home. Grew up in Foster Care which is a different form of homelessness. Would really like to have a place where I won't be displaced over and over again. I have had a very disrupted life because of my childhood or lack of.

Would like to be more than the Asian stereotype with the high tech job and be known as an artist which is my true identity.

Would like to wet print again. Basically I created a mess by concentrating on only just shooting (image capture) and making great negatives for wet printing. No scanning for me. Back in art school I was a very good printer.

Would like to become a very good digital B&W printer to fully exploit my Leica Monochrom.

Build a legacy though assembling a portfolio of large archival prints.

Become a good enough guitar player where I can be a solo performer. Good is defined as good enough to inspire others and play out.

Continue to live a life of kindness, giving, and helping. Lead by example and without compromise even if its the hard way. Realize every day that I am lucky and continue to be happy with what I have.

Looks like I can take the money and run and will be able to retire at 59 and 1/2 in 4 more years; in the meantime I have some things pending: I have an art dealer interested in my work who wants a portfolio to get me a gallery; I have a pending NYFA Fellowship application in photography that I believe I have a chance of getting ($7K cash with no strings attached except paying taxes); and I have a book length manuscript being reviewed by a friend who works for a notable literary agency. I'm hoping that if I catch any break that retirement comes sooner rather than later.

There's 10.

Cal
 
Murchu said:
Not a bucket list fan, but one of the more illuminating questions I asked myself recently, was what are the things I will regret having not done in the long, medium and short term. Not that I'm a person that regrets, but more that the most important things can sometimes slip between the cracks in favour of more glamorous things.
Click to expand...

Damien,

There's a saying, "Wise men never wish to be younger." I've had a rather reckless life, but somehow I became older than I ever though I would be. Lots of crazy edgy behavior, only a few mistakes, but no regrets.

One must ask themselves if they would have the same life they have now if some great fortune came along like winning a lottery. Basically I would be the same person and live the same life. Pretty much I'd have the same life and do what I'm doing now.

Cal
 
Calzone said:
Damien,

There's a saying, "Wise men never wish to be younger." I've had a rather reckless life, but somehow I became older than I ever though I would be. Lots of crazy edgy behavior, only a few mistakes, but no regrets.

One must ask themselves if they would have the same life they have now if some great fortune came along like winning a lottery. Basically I would be the same person and live the same life. Pretty much I'd have the same life and do what I'm doing now.

Cal
Click to expand...

Thats the acid test alright, I believe, Cal. A life well lived is the only real goal 🙂
 
squareshooter said:
Since I have a disease my doctors say will kill me I am not making any grand plans.
Click to expand...

I am very sorry. Perhaps there is no better time for grand plans.

"ponle vida a tus años, no años a tu vida"

It's a line from a song from Riardo Arjona. No idea what the rest of the song is about but this line always jumps out at me. It translates to:

"give life to your years(age), not years to you life" .

I have no idea what I will do if I am ever given such news, but I hope to have the courage to follow the advice of the line above.

I wanted to say something meaningful but I will stop before I begin to ramble.

Once again, I am very sorry.
 
squareshooter said:
Since I have a disease my doctors say will kill me I am not making any grand plans.
Click to expand...

Now is the time to start living.

“This is true happiness: to have no ambition and to work like a horse as if you had every ambition.
Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek


“A person's life purpose is nothing more than to rediscover, through the detours of art or love or passionate work, those one or two images in the presence of which his heart first opened.”
Albert Camus
 
squareshooter said:
Since I have a disease my doctors say will kill me I am not making any grand plans.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear about your illness.

I've always lived a life like I had no future. Took every risk I could, and when given choices I went for danger over safety and harder over easy, but somehow I've become a 55 year old man.

Recently been diagnosed with a low level Cancer that basically is incurable. At this point I luckily am asymptomatic. There are treatments, but no cures. Treatments according to my research can promote a turn where my Cancer can evolve into a Non Hodgins Lymphoma, or worse the very rare Waldenstrom Syndrom where Vasculitus over time destroys your vital organs. Treatments cause a lower quality of life due to compromising my immune system and need to be maintained and repeated. I am told that if my Cancer goes aggressive that I will go quick because of my current disease/pre-condition.

Currently my condition went into remission with the warm weather, but early this past February my numbers were crazy high, of a very sick person, but for some reason I remained asymptomatic. I am a living medical mystery.

I'm being carefully monitored and the current situation is "Watch and Wait." I have Cold Agglutinin Disease BTW which only effect one in 80,000. Perhaps in NYC where I live out of the population of 8 million maybe there are a hundred people with my disease. I don't expect any breakthrough or discovery because the CDC considers my disease "rare."

I expect that when the weather gets cold my numbers will spike again. Not sure if I can stay in NYC for the next 4 years as planned. Anyways I'm glad I embraced every risk I could and took every chance I could take. No regrets. Always had a fatalistic attitude since I was a little boy. JUST KEEP FIGHTING. I know first hand what it is like to explore the unknown at two Cancer hospitals. Don't wast time on BS and live life as fully as you can.

Cal
 
I've been sorting, digitizing, and resorting slides to keep the most interesting family and other subject Kodachromes (and some Fuji and Ektachrome) of about 55 years of photography. I've completed most of this process and expecting to finish in a month or two. I'll be left with a lot of digital files (scans and more recent output from digital cameras) backed up about four times and slides and negatives stored in archival boxes.

My next photographic goal is to produce one or more photographic books - Blurb or similar.

And, I'd like to meet more people from this group. I've meet some of you in Atlanta and Simon and Roger Hicks in Europe. If any of you get to South Florida, let me know. I have some favorite, non-touristy photographic sites to show.

And, there is all the non-photographic stuff to do. Life is short.

Tom
 
My main bucket list thing to do photographically is to turn as many people on to "seeing and appreciating" life through photography. So far I have been doing a pretty good job and God willing I will be able to continue.

Life in itself is a disease, we all die, it's a fatal condition. What you do with what is left of your life is what counts.
 
As a younger man, I had aspirations to do things and see things and change the world (or at least the bit I inhabited) in some significant way. However, the older (and more cynical) I've become, the less inclined I am to try to impose my view of what's right or wrong upon an unsuspecting and mostly uninterested world.

The best I can manage is to get about what's left of my life, love my wife and, if I can't do much to cure or prevent suffering and pain for others, at least avoid causing any.

I lost my best mate a month or so ago and his untimely passing was as much proof and validation that this is not a dresss rehearsal for anything as I've ever had. Just trying to live a decent and reasonable life is as much as most of us will ever manage.
 
dave lackey said:
Photographically, what is on your list to do/own/accomplish before you kick the bucket?

Before answering, remember that it is later than you think!😉
Click to expand...

After much thought, here's my list -

Travel to Tibet
Travel to China
Travel to Thailand
Travel to Mongolia
Travel to Vietnam
Travel to Japan
Travel to Bhutan
Travel to India
Publish a book of my photographs from each of the above locations

And: Allow the above list to evolve. That should keep me occupied for the next thirty years. Good news, though - I am getting a start in 46 days. That's when I leave for Mongolia. 😀
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

dave lackey
What is on your Bucket List?
2
Replies
36
Views
2K
Calzone
C
Back
Top Bottom