Posted on 03/26/2018 5:47:22 AM PDT by SandRat
Most people have a Wish List. Some may call it a Bucket List, but they are not necessarily the same.
A Bucket List usually refers to things we want to do or places we want to see before we die.
A Wish List typically itemizes stuff we want to accumulate while we are still kicking.
Sometimes the Bucket and the Wish cross paths. That happens when the person compiling the two is unclear on the concept of Wish and Bucket.
If you are an enthusiastic shopper with sufficient funds, it is possible you support the “see something, buy it” mindset. However, some shoppers enjoy or prefer looking without buying. They may choose to window shop because they lack funds. Or they desire the pure delight of spending time alone without someone demanding they hurry up.
My mother was the queen of looking but not buying. If you doubt me, please consider that mother spent eight hours in a sizable craft store window shopping. It must have been relaxing because she came home smiling. When she shopped with the eyes rather than the wallet she compiled various wish lists.The lists may include a few items for her, but mostly listed gifts she’d like to buy for family and friends.
On the other hand, grocery shopping with our father, the king of impatience, was a weekly ordeal. You could say those times were her purgatory on earth.
No, he did not walk around the store dropping items in the shopping cart like Hubby tends to do. Father sat in the car, waiting. As you might have guessed, the longer he had to wait, the more agitated he became.
When it came to shopping, in the store or online, mother’s two daughters did not follow in her look-but-not-buy footsteps.
One daughter loves to shop, but she likes to buy, not just look. Her motto: I like it. It is a bargain at that price. I’m buying a dozen, whether I need it or not. Is that how hoarders approach their excessive accumulation lifestyle?
This writer abhors shopping, including grocery shopping. If we did not need fuel to survive, buying groceries would be the first thing crossed off my Must Do list. I walk in; buy the necessary item or items, and leave. No longing looks and lingering for this gal.
Often something catches my eye, but I talk myself out of buying it. Of course there have been times I regretted that decision. Oh well.
Perhaps the less one has, the more a person wants. This attitude is understandable among folks not born with silver spoons in their mouth. If that is the case, what do those who have everything wish to possess? From pure observation, they tend to accumulate for tax write-off purposes or just because they can.
It is a good thing we are not wealthy because clutter is annoying. As it is, we have more than we need or want. In fact, this writer’s focus is finding happy homes for as many of her possessions as possible. That may sound odd to you. But when you consider that belongings need care, at least dusting, and they take up space, it makes perfect sense.
The problem is it takes time and effort to match your belonging with happy homes.
Life is a constant evolution. What we wished for and obtained may become too much. Nowadays, our wish is to find people who need what we no longer use without enduring the brain damage of a garage sale.
Besides, who wants to buy garages?
Tower of London fur
Jack the Ripper Walking Tour
British Museum
Churchill's War Rooms
Blenheim Palace
The Cotswolds
Westminster Abbey Tour
Harrod's
Madame Tussaud's
Hampton Court Palace
Windsor Castle
I did all of them. I also went to The London Dungeon, looking for a gift shop so I could buy my son a Jack the Ripper t-shirt. Of course you had to go through the Dungeon feature to reach the gift shop, and after all that, they didn't have any. Afterwards, I walked across Tower Bridge back toward Tower Hill to wait for the Jack the Ripper Walking Tour to start. I took a boat ride along the Thames from Westminster Bridge down to Tower Bridge and back again. Walked to Buckingham Palace on my first Sunday there, and observed a military parade, and wreath laying ceremony at the Guards Memorial across from the Horse Guards Parade Army Barracks. Got to view No. 10 Downing Street through the gate, and walked along the London Embankment.
I went back to London in August of 2007. Didn't really have a bucket list as a long-time friend went with me. She'd never been there before so we went to the Tower of London, Hampton Court, British Museum, toured Buckingham Palace, The National Portrait Gallery at Trafalgar Square, and Bletchley Park. Also toured Sir John Soane's Museum, and The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. We also went to Temple Church, but unfortunately it was closed, and enclosed in scaffolding. We took an overnighter to Paris. I'd been there the year before, but again, she'd never been there, so we went to The Louvre when we got there, then that evening took an evening tour of the city and boat ride on the Seine. The next day we went back to The Louvre, and in the hours before heading back to London, we toured the Chateau Vincennes in Paris.
I'll never be able to get back to London, or any other place in this lifetime, so I'll have to be happy with the memories I have of my times overseas.
I’ve got a little list — I’ve got a little list
Of society offenders who might well be underground,
And who never would be missed — who never would be missed!
The people who eat peppermint and puff it in your face,
They never would be missed — they never would be missed!
Then the idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,
All centuries but this, and every country but his own;
I’ve got ‘em on the list — I’ve got ‘em on the list;
And they’ll none of ‘em be missed — they’ll none of ‘em be missed.
(Thank you to Gilbert and Sullivan)
Oh Glass Harp! Phil Keaggy! I remember those days.
My daughter goes to college in a dry western state. She would wake up in the middle of the night and have to put on lotion her skin itched so much. Then she got the idea to put a humidifier in her room - problem solved.
I was pretty proud of her for thinking of that on her own. “Well - I remember when we were little and would have winter colds, and you would bring out the humidifier and put it in our room.”
No.
I understand what you are writing. But these people were miserable.
They lived in the same place for almost 90 years. They worked the same jobs for 50 years.
Really— there were few experiences of joy in their lives.
I had a ‘bucket list’ once, though I had never heard the term to then. I am 71 and have not accomplished much at all of it. However I find that I have a different bucket of things I have done and places I have been that I never would have placed in that pail when I was thinking about those things half a century ago. These are much more solid and satisfying, I think, than any of those things I wanted to do when I was twenty.
Interesting response, ThanPhero. Mine is similar. My wife and I traveled extensively before we were 30 and had kids. (even some months in 1971 behind the Iron Curtain - whew.) Have kept it up since that time, even on a pretty modest income.
At this point, age 67, just taking what comes. I have never been to Rome, though, which is just silly, given my interests. Would like to go there with my wife and my adult daughter (who speaks Italian) and her husband for an exclusively “Roman Holiday.”
In my experience, the greatest joys in life come from having a wife, children, and grandchildren.
I wouldn’t trade that to be the richest man in the world.
Yah, but your eyes would glaze over. I love animated movies and anime series, and write critiques, a la Leonard Maltin. Don’t get me started...
I built one about 40 years ago! LOL! You’ll love the challenge!
Having kids was, overall, great. Junior High School girls are their own special species..but it only lasts a few years. That far shorter than a manslaughter sentence.
My daughter was talking about having kids as soon as her hubby returns from Africa. I told her it would be a very good idea to wait until he got home. For a lot of reasons.
I never thought I would look forward to being a grandparent, but after taking care of her puppy—I think I will warm up to the idea. Its nice to get the puppy all worked up and spoiled...just to send him home. I am sure kids will be MORE fun!
“I told her it would be a very good idea to wait until he got home. For a lot of reasons.”
You got that right. Africa! (Shudder)
“I never thought I would look forward to being a grandparent, but after taking care of her puppy—I think I will warm up to the idea.”
I never thought I would live to be a grandparent, but I’m sure glad I did.
Africa ((Shudder))
Especially since they make good war movies about the goings on right down the street from where he works. (Think Helicopters.)
Counting the days...
I wholly agree. It's an extension of consumerism and conspicuous consumption.
That said, I have a list: All the evil people within easy reach who are worthy of death when hostilities break out.
Everyone should have a list like that.
You should not write it down!
You said it in a manner way better than I could have. And I just said the exact same thing, sorta.
They are still going.
Wow! Keaggy still with them?
I have to go to Pompeii, Athens, Palmyra, Giza and Valley of Kings.
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