Alex is taking a finance class. And although finance sounds about as boring to me as watching paint dry (which actually, would be more interesting...), he has a fantastic extra credit assignment, which goes something like this: make a list of 100 things you hope to accomplish before you die. When he told me about the assignment, I immediately exclaimed "Oh! I want to do that too!" Today seems a good day to do this. We went to a funeral of a dear family friend, someone who seemed to embrace doing what he loved to do. And so there is his fingerprint on this list. It just seems fitting. In no particular order:
1. Go to India. I have wanted to go to India since my freshman year of college, when I took a seminar on Indian Civilization. My friend Jenny performed mudras in class. She went to India and brought me back a scarf with bangles. I still wear it today.
2. Reread all of Vonnegut's novels.
3. Go on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela with Alex, my favorite hiking companion. I am fascinated by pilgrimage in general. It is what I will do for my sabbatical in two years.
4. Learn how to make turducken. Because, why not?
5. Start painting again.
6. Go on a yoga retreat.
7. Finish my dissertation.
8. Reacquaint myself with Italian, well enough to reread Dante and Petrarch and Boccacio.
9. Learn how to play my ukulele.
10. Make quince jam. I have a quince tree. I should make preserves from the fruit. It seems only right.
11. Take my niece to New York and show her the Met and The Cloisters. Take her to a Broadway play, and to Serendipity for frozen hot chocolate.
12. Read all of Aldous Huxley. I haven't. But I have them all. So that's a good start.
13. Go to Petra. And Cappadocia. And anywhere else I can visit monasteries carved from rock.
14. Remember to screw the caps on things and shut the cabinets and so on...this seems like a no-brainer. For me, not so much.
15. Learn how to make all of my mother-in-law's Austrian meals. So that I can make them for our children. And our grandchildren.
16. Which would require children. I would like a child. Just one is good.
17. Keep in touch with old friends.
18. Keep in touch with former students.
19. Learn how to knit. Well. As in better than the kindergarten-looking, 8 foot long scarf that I made a couple of years ago.
20. If I have children, allow them to be children. And allow them to make mistakes. And not worry too much. And love being a child.
21. Learn German well enough to get by in Austria. And teach our children Alex's first language.
22. Teach an art history course.
23. Take a dance class again.
24. Go to Hawaii. My grandmother went there. She said it was her favorite place on earth.
25. Perfect my photography skills.
26. Be better about taking my vitamins.
27. Not be so afraid of karaoke.
28. Write a poem for Gran.
29. Do something meaningful with my Native American heritage.
30. Learn how to make injera. Seriously.
31. Write a book.
32. Actually join a Lupus support group.
33. Learn to sort of enjoy ski culture. Maybe.
34. Go to as many dance performances as possible.
35. Vague, but start a foundation for something. I live in Baltimore, after all.
36. Go back to Tartine and have their salmon a few more times.
37. Design the perfect sock.
38. More dogs.
39. Run in the rain more. I love that.
40. Get better at directions. I have no sense of direction.
41. Read all of Jorge Amado's books again. Make a painting out of them.
42. Learn to bake the perfect loaf of bread. Find someone to teach me this skill.
43. Let go. Just let go.
44. Be authentic.
45. When the wrinkles come, accept them as signs of a life well-lived.
46. But continue to wear sunscreen.
47. Travel, travel travel. That is all.
48. Take a year and live by the sea or the ocean. And write. Cherish every day of that year.
49. Be the good when things are bad.
50. Get better at framing pictures.
51. Get better at hanging pictures.
52. Just because I don't work in a museum anymore doesn't mean I shouldn't go to them. Museums need love.
53. Get over the things I will never be. Celebrate the things I am.
54. Come to terms with winter.
55. Save the seeds. Share them. Keep things generative.
56. Discover an appreciation for the rhododendron, because I currently do not have one.
57. Never lose my love of a good porch.
58. An act of love a day. Just do it.
59. Make sure my students and future unknown potential child do it too.
60. Always write cards.
61. Slow down.
62. Continue to wear my heart on my sleeve.
63. Add a protective layer of Teflon to that heart.
64. Sit in silence daily.
65. Continued wonder.
66. Embrace my introvertedness. It's okay to be this way.
67. And don't let it get in the way of living.
68. Thank Mom and Dad for everything. So much everything.
69. Bonsai? I always wanted to do bonsai, but does it hurt the tree?
70. In 2025, go to West Point for role call. I promised Gran I would.
71. Keep my promises.
72. Make sure future unknown potential child loves to read as much as I do.
73. Relearn the birdsongs.
74. Speaking of birds, find a cool picture of a pelican.
75. Hear Thich Nhat Hanh in person.
76. Go to a Joni Mitchell concert (does she still perform?)
77. Do the little things that make others' lives better.
78. Perfect my malfatti-making. It's almost there.
79. Always forgive.
80. Don't become angry.
81. Don't be a victim to someone else's anger again.
82. Accomplish the thing you didn't imagine you would.
83. Maintain imagination.
84. With future unknown potential child, foster imagination.
85. And may that imagination be used to better some pocket of the world.
86. Be the yin to Alex's yang.
87. Sing more. I'm not half bad.
88. Go back to Calvert Cliffs.
89. Always take stock of what matters.
90. Never let time or busyness prevent me from being appreciative.
91. Stop losing things.
92. Bring love wherever it is needed or wanted.
93. Sardinia because why not?
94. Portugal because why not?
95. A new set of pastels because Granddad would be proud to see me sketching and creating again.
96. Let the light in.
97. Keep the cold - temperature-wise and personality-wise - out.
98. Give more than you get.
99. Always acknowledge grace in others (inner and outer).
100. Let what survives of me be love.
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