Bucket List

Back in 2007 Rob Reiner's hit movie The Bucket List thrilled us with not one but two of the greatest titans in the acting world; Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. It was tender at times, hilarious at others. Watching each of them individually, we gained insight into some of the heart wrenching, personal agony of dealing with terminal illness. Watching the two of them together, we vicariously experienced the ecstasy that can come from the kind of deep, rich, abiding friendship which they enjoyed. While critics gave it mixed reviews the general public, self included, loved it. In fact, we loved it to the tune of some $175 million in worldwide box office receipts.

The movie's greatest success, however, was not actually financial. It was social, and therefore far greater! The Bucket List's 'wish list' theme struck the cord of one of our culture's deepest values with such force that it spawned a phrase that has become commonplace in our language even today; With surprising frequency, we hear people refer to what's on their bucket list. Truth be told, we've probably said it ourselves.

Excuse me for being blunt but, with our focus on the movie's excellent acting, compelling story line and box office receipts, aren't we missing something pretty big here? Like, say, the movie's questionable premise; that the essence of one's life is to be found in determining what you want on your bucket list and then doing everything you possibly can to make those things happen before you kick that bucket.  

"It's different," you say, "if you know you only have a short time to live." Well, thanks for making my point for me, i.e. I can agree with some of that line of thinking, but you and I use the bucket list mentality even though we have no idea when we're going to die. ( Hopefully later rather than sooner.) In so doing we make this mentality into our compass, taking both our current bearings and future heading from it. 

Our bucket list is a 'to do' list of pleasures. Even seeking 'fulfillment' and 'personal meaning' in life are exercises in self-gratification. Same old, same old. These words are just socially affirmed because they have attractive spiritual connotations. (Read Anthony de Mello's Awareness on what he calls 'enlightened selfishness'). My bucket list is all about me. It’s all about serving and satisfying my ego.  Again, I beg your imperturbability here, but weren't we supposed to grow out of that sort of thinking while we were still in the sandbox? Did we not get that memo? Worldly speaking, we certainly haven't learned to play nicely together!

Could our premise be the problem?

No private jet, Jesus never traveled very widely himself. And when he got to his destination at day's end, my guess is, his accommodations were never very cushy. But he, too, had good friends. And, as in the characters played by Freeman and Nicholson, we see in him both the ecstasy of life and the agony of death. But more importantly, when he arrived (and his definition of "arrived" was way different from ours), it seems great joy and raison d'être came to him while using his limited time remaining on earth for others.

Hmmm.