Bucket Lists in the Time of Armageddon
It’s supposedly the Armageddon, sortof, in America right now. Or Day 1, Year 1, AA* around here. :)
No other time could be more perfect to talk about bucket lists. Japan's recent apocalyptic triple whammy means that thinking up our ideal top ten must-do's must be vogueish.
Ah, bucket lists, missions, and goals. They give meaning to our existence, not just a clear straight line to the grave.
And yet, most missions are never complete. Nor every bucket list item is ever ticked.
That’s because keeping up with the Joneses (now reincarnated as Facebook envy) and the barrage of ads (power of suggestion) render such lists seemingly incomplete (“I want that, too.”), impractical, and a source of disillusionment.
Moreover, the forces of nature might just torpedo them all in one go.
Listen. Vacation plans can get totaled by an Ondoy. Grand designs can be imploded by an Al Qaeda jet. A view of the Boracay sunset can get inundated by a tsunami.
The dream/dream car shattered by an oncoming truck in the headlights. The booty call ruined by a patient’s call. The next one exploded by a meteor on impact.
Then, the mass extinction of happiness can ensue.
So what lists are we talking about when every moment is Armageddon material? Haha!
The urge to list needs to be cured by our appreciation of things as they are and as they come. I.e., seeing the sunnier side to the epic fail, and the poetry in the mundane.
Heck, I can channel Boracay vibes in the disgusting heat of the concrete jungle. I can eat isaw and bihod and call them offal and caviar.
Call them what you may -- defense mechanisms or rationalizations or what-have-you.
To me, it’s just going Zen on your asses.
Now compile them and voila, you have a retrospective spur-of-the-moment top ten.
One time, my white shirt caught a nasty stain, a stain not unlike some sort of end-of-days rust.
I said holy s#!+ but I was fine, noting it’s nothing compared with losing one’s wallet to pickpockets.
I still went on to pay courtesy call on some medical society bigwig.
Then, five days ago, kaboom, my wallet got stolen. That wallet was a gift from my brother.
Now I have to say oh that’s nothing. People die of hunger in Africa. (Argh.)
See? Events torpedo epic lists. _____________________________________________________*A*AA = After Armageddon
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