Shelved Dreams, Revisited

When I graduated from college, there were three things that I wanted to do before I died:

• Skydive

• Travel down the entire Mississippi River

• Jump a moving train

Whatever happened to those little dreams?

The death of a big dream is a hard thing, but the dissolving of a little idea that has yet to take root is not so painful. That skydiving plan faded to nothing over the years, and I think the J. Garland McKee “Paratrooper” story really finished it off . . .
(click on the album cover to listen.)







Several years ago my children and I read Minn of the Mississippi by Holling C. Holling. It is a clever tale about a turtle that is hatched at the source of the Mississippi River and spends the next thirty years of its life swimming, walking, tumbling . . . down to the Gulf of Mexico. After finishing that studyand concluding with Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi – I realized that my original plan to travel down the river was not as easy as I had once imagined it to be. I was thinking steamboat – not canoe. Waterfalls, anyone? *sigh* Though the entire river has been traveled by some, I am modifying my dream: I would like to walk across the Mississippi River. ;-)

The first abandoned and the second adjusted, I only have one intact little dream left of my original three. I still want to jump a moving train. Before images of danger and death fill your mind, I should probably clarify something. The train can be creeping ever so slowly and still be considered “moving” in my book. (This might be all that remains of my original bucket list, but I don’t want to kick the bucket in the process of fulfilling such dreams.) Hop on – hop off. When the story is told later, all I will say is, “Last week I jumped a moving train.” The imagination of my listener can fill in the blanks.


Epilogue:

This blog entry was written at the request of a dear friend. When asked to consider sharing my “bucket list,” I immediately thought of the above three ideas. Having reconsidered the list at length, and updating it accordingly, I decided to give the entire idea an additional, typically introspective, shake.

The result?

If I really knew that I had only a short time to live, I’d trade every other hope and dream for more time with those I deeply love – one person at a time, face to face, until it was time to go. It is what I enjoy most now; I can’t imagine it would be different in my final days. Can you?

The best things said come last.
People will talk for hours saying nothing much and then linger at the door with words that come with a rush from the heart.
~ Alan Alda

~ End Quote