The People in My Bucket – To Meet Before I Die

Courtesy L. Fleming

By the time bucket lists became popular, I was too close to the proverbial bucket to wanna think about making a list. My older son is still young enough to have grand hopes and dreams. He has walked on the Great Wall in China and flown in a hot air balloon over Australia. He makes a mamma proud. Son #2 is making his way into the big, wide world and is even more adventurous than his older brother was as a teen. I wonder who they got that from.

I'm passport avoidant. It comes with the fraidy cat territory. I get wanderlust a lot, but it involves little things: visiting New Mexico again, seeing the aurora borealis, going to the Gulf Coast. Pretty tame compared to some bucket lists.

It dawned on me today, that if I were to compile a bucket list, it would involve people more than places and activities. When I grow up, I want to spend my time asking people questions a la Katie Couric or Barbara Walters.

Yea, I guess that ship has sailed, hasn't it? But, a girl can dream. And since she can, here's my dream list of folks who fill my bucket.

Suitable For Entertaining

These are some of the folks with whom I'd love to share dinner and a leisurely, meandering conversation. When I think of the questions I could ask these folks, I'm about as giddy as I was when, as a fourth grader, I'd rush home from school to read both the morning paper and the evening paper. No such thing as too much information.

Terry Bradshaw – a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame who is one of the funniest guests Jay Leno books. I'd love to talk to him about faith and fame and ask what he'd choose if he got one 'do over' in life. 

Victoria Clarke – true confessions, I'm a C-Span nerd. She is former Asst. Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs from back in the Donald Rumsfeld era. Her pressers just fascinated me. I'd ask how her childhood and adolescence prepared her for the life she's led. I'd ask what's on her bucket list.

Sebastian Junger – author of The Perfect Storm and War because he ain't no fraidy cat as his travels and writings bear out. I'd ask who his personal hero is and why. 

Barbara Kingsolver and Olive Ann Burns – authors of my favorite books of all time, The Poisonwood Bible and Cold Sassy Tree, respectively. I'd hate to ask them boorish questions about their 'craft', so I think I'd just sit with them and people watch while brainstorming ideas for plot and character based on the action going on around us.

Robin Roberts – anchor of Good Morning America currently on medical leave after undergoing a bone marrow transplant. Our mammas were both church musicians and played the same hymns. Robin's mom passed away just before her recent transplant. My mom died two years ago after 50+ days on a vent. I think we'd just compare notes about moms.

Salman Rushdie – author of Joseph Anton. He survived a fatwa and, in the process of living to tell about it, maintained a wicked sense of humor. I'm not sure I could say anything because I'd be dumbstruck, but he does an amazing interview. I hope I could squeak out a question or two about how he maintained his sense of humor in the midst of adversity.

Meredith Vieira – former Today Show news anchor whose husband lives with a chronic illness. I'd ask her about her hardest interviews and if any one interview impacted her in a life-changing way. I'd also ask how she copes with the day to day realities of her husband challenges.  

Bet you'd never have guessed in a million years the these folks fill up my bucket. Wonder what this list says about me? Whose on your bucket list of people, and what would your list reveal about you? Something to think about, now isn't it? Not that I'd be caught dead giving weekend homework.