Which Is a List of Everything Cool to Do That I Could Think of in Twenty Minutes

09/30/2007 7:19 AM – 7:42 AM

I did everything, he said when he came to die. Alright then, what is everything? A list, I say, I list! To buy rural land with my own money, build a house on it with my own hands, and make and tend a garden large enough to feed 'til the next harvest.

Further, to write, publish and be paid for many novels. To thru-hike the Appalachian, Continental Divide, Pacific Crest, North Country and all the various cool smaller Long trails. To live for a year in Ireland, a small town on the Mediterranean coast, Alaska, a desert and a tropical isle. To find, meet, seduce and marry a woman that’s worth the trouble and will remain so for as long as we both shall live. And to be worth the trouble myself. To read too many comic books and write at least one long one. To read all the Great Books and many, many Damn Fine ones.

And finally, to have and raise children who are driven to enjoy life and are able to do it fairly effortlessly. To be wise. To be cool. To laugh a great deal. To get and keep a body and mind that are able to undertake any adventures that may present themselves. To spend the majority of my life without a boss. To believe in, love and enjoy God while I’m alive but not so much so that I neglect all the wonders of this life. To not worry except to the extent that it is useful. To be able to build a fire with only the stuff I can find around me. To be able to build a bow and arrows from scratch and then take down a deer with it. And then eat the deer. To be able to play the old, good blues on some instrument and sing along with it. To have a workshop and be able to make cool stuff in it. To keep making lists of things to do and then do them until death sneaks up behind me, whacks me on the head and drags me off to heaven, laughing. Me laughing, though death can laugh too, if he wishes.