Baba's Bucket List

Have you ever put anything off until later? I know I have.

I was thinking about it today when we were at the the Palestinian Embassy...I would have put off this trip indefinitely. I mean, who would willingly want to waste almost three hours of their day sitting around waiting for some document with a bunch of screaming kids, smelly men, and oblivious women?!

With all this time on my hands, I got to thinking about how many things my father put off until later...the kitchen cabinets that were never finished, though he poured his heart and soul into making them just right. He probably thought, "oh, I'll pick it up later when I'm more energetic and I have the patience for it." That being said, he was never one not to admit defeat. He acknowledged that it was a far bigger job than he was capable of... What about other things that he started and never got the chance to finish? The books that still have bookmarks and notes in them, halfway finished. (It's astonishing to see how similar we are in that respect-I'm always reading about 3 books and 5 magazines at the same time). What about the things that I didn't know about, that he kept in his mental notebook (his head)? We all have so many of these projects that we never get around to completing. There's always a someday, or tomorrow. I'm not saying that we shouldn't put things off--it's human nature, but it's interesting to figure out why we do it.

What I find most interesting about my father is that he was OK with not finishing a project, and saying that he just got bored of doing whatever it was. I wonder if he would have hurried up and finished the books and the projects had he known that he would be taking his final leap fairly soon. Maybe would he have opted to do something else. Did he have a bucket list?

I never heard him say, I would love to go to this place, or I would love to do this before I die... For me, that is fascinating because I still have so many things I'd like to do, and places I'd like to see and experience. If you're asking, I do have a bucket list, I just haven't put pen to paper yet!