Date posted: August 2, 2007 - Thursday
Title: 10 Things To Do ...
Current mood: Speculative
OK, we've done this before. I got tagged in a blog tag and asked to list 10 things I want to do before I die.
It's been a couple of days now and every time I think about it I realize this is harder than you would think right off the bat.
I have been debating about how I should approach an answer to the question. I am not sure if I should treat this seriously and list my hopes and desires; strip myself naked for all the world to see (or at least that little part of it which cares to look or stumbles upon my ramblings.) Should I should just list mundane things with a basis in accomplishable reality? Should I list some things I really want, but know have very little chance of ever coming true?
So, without a clear answer in my mind I am going to list 10 things. You have to figure out if I am serious or not and whether or not I really think they can be completed. You have to decide if they are realistic or just a fantasy I need to hold on to in order to maintain my sanity.
1. I want to be married. I want to find someone who can share a life with me despite my faults, shortcomings and all the things I may not be able to fulfill in their life. I want someone who will have a passion for me that will sustain us through whatever time we have together. And I want to do everything I can to make that person feel safe and comfortable and loved.
2. I want to publish as much of my writing as is humanly possible with the time I have left on this earth. A little background here. When I was young, and foolish, I held an unbelievable fantasy. I wanted to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Yep, unrealistic in the extreme, but it was my fantasy. I long ago realized this was nothing I would ever accomplish, but that doesn't mean I don't want to produce something of high literary merit before I die. Hell, maybe just something that will touch a few people.
3. I want to visit the Moonlight Bunny Ranch in Nevada. No, I don't want to have sex with one of the legal prostitutes there. I just want to be able to say I have been there. It's kind of like visiting Mount Rushmore or the Grand Canyon, but with something of a more personal touch.
4. I want to own a Hasselblad. For those of you who don't know it is a camera. It is Swiss made and uses what is called a medium-format film. 2.25" x 2.25" inch negatives. The astronauts dropped one in space one time and I would have volunteered to go up and get it if they would let me have the camera. They offer a whole line of digital cameras now -- or digital backs for the camera. They start at about $13,000 and go up to just north of $42,000.
At one time when I was younger I could think of no more happy thing than to spend all day taking pictures and the evening developing the film and printing up the pictures.
5. I would like to write and sell a screenplay for a major movie. I've had ideas for films kicking around in my head for a long time. One of my pet mental projects was doing a film to reunite Robert Redford and Paul Newman. I have a kind of a notion of the type of story that might appeal to both of them, but I suspect I have waited a little too long to get this accomplished.
6. I would like to get everything finally organized. Yep, I'm a slob. Things around me are a mess and probably going to stay that way, but wouldn't it be neat to have it all stored away where it was totally accessible and yet organized. All the books, tapes, DVDs, writing supplies, old photographs --- just all of it where I could get to it, but it wouldn't be stacked everywhere in such a hodge podge mess.
7. I want to do something to help my family. I have brothers and sisters who could use a little help from time to time. But I am so bogged down in my own mess I don't seem to be able to offer the help I might. I would like to get to a place and be able to do something to make things easier for them. I feel at times I have let them all down or disappointed them and I just want to know I made some contribution to them.
8. I want to be able to take a real vacation. I would like to have the stability and financial wherewithal to be able to see a few places in the world that have always fascinated me. Egypt. Not all of it, just the pyramids and the Cairo Museum. I saw the Tut Exhibit both times when it was here in the U.S. and I would like to see all of it. And the pyramids.
The Louvre. There are works of art there that I would love to see.
Ireland. The land of my closest ancestors.
The United States. All the landmarks and even touristy places that have significance.
When I was much younger I had another fantasy. I would have an RV, or maybe a converted bus, It would have everything I needed to get along. I would travel around, park in a place and stay as long as I wanted. I would have a little office in the back and I would write and maybe explore the area and then move on.
9. I want to be able to spend whatever time I have left without worrying. I know this one borders on fantasy because I am a natural-born worrier. But wouldn't it be nice to just be able to get up in the morning and know you could do whatever you wanted with your day? To have no panic about where the next paycheck would come from, or how you HAD to spend your day in order to survive.
10. I would like to make a difference. Vague, I know, but there are so many things I see around me that need correcting or help. I would like to make a difference to some of the people I know.
