My bucket list is below. It's concise because my family will share in these dreams. It also feels incredibly spießig (narrow-mindedly middle class). No doubt it would have been more adventuresome before I became a house dad, or even a dad. Rest assured, I feel very far from achieving any of them. At the bottom, I've posted some items that I've already reached, for reference.
Let me know what one dream of yours is.
TO DO:
Live
- Live in Tokyo for at least a year, three is even better. Radiation from Fukushima may be a concern for the kids' development, says my cousin who lives there.
- Live in Singapore for some time.
- Live a life worth writing about.
Learn
- Learn enough kanji to read a newspaper and a Murakami novel. Computer translation will become good enough, fast enough, before I achieve this.
- Learn to surf well. This may take the rest of my life.
Build / Create
- With Jeff, and we may need more partners:
- Start and run a sustainable business, this may be in conjunction with publishing.
- Publish a book
- Design, fund, and build an arcology
- Coach my family in the design and construction of our house, a la Jaron Lanier.
- Publish a book about my experiences as a house dad, by myself or by contract.
- Publish a novel.
Nurture
- Raise kids well enough so when we kick them out of the house at 18 years of age and remodel their rooms, they'll survive.
- Deepen and broaden intimacy with my wife. I treasure her.
- Coach kids to learn while creating things, and to use both their hands and their minds. If they decide to, assist them to market and sell what they create.
- Live in harmony with the earth as much as possible.
- Teach kids autodidacticism. Or is this something you can only learn yourself?
- Care for my parents if/when they need me in their old age, no idea how I'll do this if we live far away. No idea how I'll do this.
- Keep in contact with those friends who have real meaning to me until I die.
- Share that scotch with JR, in his mountain cabin and on top of the arcology we built.
- Take my kids to see the key buildings I worked on, which are mainly in New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
Travel
- With my wife and/or kids, adventure in Shanghai, Bangkok, Petra, Scandinavia, India, Africa, Russia, Brazil.
- See the Bali sunset while drinking an ice cold beer and leaning back on a sand dune.
- Hike on a glacier before they are all gone.
- Take a ship to see and walk on the Arctic or Antarctic ice.
- Live without a home for a couple of years enjoying life without kids, enjoying life with Sara, while staying at rented apartments for about a month or so at a time.
DONE
- Live/study in Japan.
- Live in Berlin (Magdeburg is close enough).
- Learn the German language and culture (thanks KB!)
- Live, party, and work in New York City.
- Become a licensed architect; design and build for university clients.
- Marry an amazing woman and have beautiful kids.
- Do a Master's degree.
- Walk the DMZ between the two Koreas.
- Savor sushi at Tsukiji Market.
- Learn to surf at Playa Tamarindo in Costa Rica.
- Watch the sunset from the ancient city wall of Tangiers.
Well, you asked for comments on our own bucket list, so here's some:
ReplyDelete- Learn to play the guitar well enough to accompany my wife while she sings the song she surprised me with at our wedding on our 10th anniversary.
- Teach my kids how to plant, sow and harvest fruits and vegetables in the garden (and thus re-learn it myself).
- Share a well-seasoned rum and a heartfelt laugh about all our young-involved-daddies-angst, worries and fun on the porch of my retirement home somewhere in some mountains when we both are wizened old granddads.
- Do the same with a fine smokey-flavoured whisky on the top of that stylish arcology you will have designed and built by then.
And for reference and your interest here's a recent achievement:
Successfully teach Maya how to use the toilet before she turns 2. :-D
Congratulations to Maya on her training!
DeleteI am ready to join you anytime, not just in retirement, in sharing that rum AND scotch.
(^_^)