100 Things

Patti Miinch

I went to lunch with several friends last month, and after the obligatory discussion of how busy we were due to the holidays and how much simpler (i.e., better) things where when we were growing up, the conversation turned to New Year’s resolutions.

One of the ladies said she has only two goals for the year: to get through the year without any major health issues and to complete six items on her bucket list. I winced. Since it was first coined by Justin Zackham and popularized in 2007 by the film version of his screenplay “The Bucket List,” I’ve harbored a very strong dislike for the term “bucket list.”

It’s not that I have anything against making lists of goals and tasks to complete. Quite the opposite! I’ve been an inveterate list-maker and goal-setter since I began writing at age five. I don’t mind confessing that from time to time I’ve even created a list of lists to be made!

Rather, it’s the concept of creating a list and then racing to tick off the items as the Grim Reaper waits in the wings that I don’t like.

Instead of a bucket list, I take my cue from a lady I sat across from at a scrapbooking workshop in 2008. A two-time cancer survivor, LouAnn chose to create a “100 Things” list instead. As she showed me the scrapbook pages she was creating from pictures of her trip to Paris, she explained that rather than think about what she wanted to do before dying, she focused on what she wanted to do while living.

A matter of semantics, one might say, and that’s true to some degree. But as the “half-full or half-empty glass” saying illustrates, how we view things is important.

I have my own 100 List, but it doesn’t yet have 100 things on it. It’s a work in progress. As I travel what I refer to as “the second mile” of my life, I find myself removing items that involve accruing things and adding items that involve activities and people.

I’ve completed some of the items. For example, I’ve crewed and ridden in a hot-air balloon festival and zip-lined. I’ve met Yadi and attended a Neil Diamond concert, and I’ve backpacked in Europe and attended a week-long class at the John C. Campbell Folk School.

Most things on the list remain undone. I have 22 years’ worth of my children’s scrapbooks to complete, for example, and I want to learn to knit two socks at a time, toe-up. I want to make fudge like my mom’s and release baby turtles into the sea and watch all the Oscar Best Picture winners. I want to see all my grandchildren graduate from high school.

Whether you have a 100 Things list or not, I hope 2020 is filled with activities and people that bring you joy and peace. Happy New Year!