A Retro Bucket List

I have just begun reading a book by former President Jimmy Carter titled “A Full Life. Reflections at Ninety.”

This week I start living my 90th year and instead of waiting until my ninetieth birthday to reflect I figured I’d start right in now at 89, and as I do I will see if I can’t do something spectacular this coming year to make mine a life worthwhile. Just maybe I suspect that I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. I just never thought I’d be in this predicament. When I signed up for Social Security in 1943, I asked “How long must I pay this until I can retire?” and I was told, “65.” So I then asked, “And what is my life expectancy right now?” And I was told, “65”. I said, “Sounds like a government deal.” And it was.

Because of that experience I just figured I’d live to 65, sign up for Social Security Benefits and then die. Well, I didn’t. I expected to. That was the deal. Do you think Uncle Sam would lie to me?

I got to be seventy, then eighty and right now as I begin my 90th year I’m still feeling pretty good. Some of my body parts are ebbing but overall, as the song says I’m “Stayin’ Alive! Stayin’ Alive!”

I figure that from 65 on, I have been granted a bonus. This coming year I am going to work on a Bucket List. I won’t write down a thing to begin with but every time I do something worthwhile I will write it on my Bucket List and put a check behind it on my list. You might call it a retroactive bucket list. I guess I’ll start in by smiling at people. Then, who knows, pretty soon I might start smiling at me.