GUEST COMMENTARY: A bucket list for believers

(RNS) Morgan Freeman, per my usual reaction, won my heart in the early stages of the film, “The Bucket List.” He was just too darn decent to be terminally ill. I felt something like you feel when you learn your closest friend has cancer. Horror. Disbelief. Then Freeman met Jack Nicholson and together they tackled […]

(RNS) Morgan Freeman, per my usual reaction, won my heart in the early stages of the film, “The Bucket List.” He was just too darn decent to be terminally ill. I felt something like you feel when you learn your closest friend has cancer. Horror. Disbelief. Then Freeman met Jack Nicholson and together they tackled a list of must-do’s before death.

I laughed and cried in that film. And I started my own bucket list. It simply made sense. Setting goals is important, no matter one’s age. But living life to the fullest and deciding what you cannot live without seeing, doing or being, matters more. A wise Roman Catholic nun once told me the best way to evaluate potential experiences, career changes, even romantic prospects, was to ask a simple question: Is it life-giving?

The recommendations in the new book “99 Things to Do Between Here and Heaven,” fairly rustle with life. The suggestions range from the simple — “forgive a wrong” — to the more complex — “write a letter to your future self.” In recent years I’ve seen so many how-to books on journaling, spiritual scrap-booking, making a home altar, etc., that sometimes I’m jaded about new books and articles with similar themes. So I was skeptical at this newest one.


But the authors’ — Kathleen Long Bostrom and Peter Graystone — take on what we cannot do without doing during our brief lifespan on this planet made me pause. Their book reminded me of my late father’s words just a few weeks before the end of his life as I struggled to tell him how much he meant to me and how much his death would undo me. He didn’t want to talk about dying, though he thanked me for telling him how much I loved him and how important his presence, guidance and support had meant.

“My dear, thank you,” he said, “but I want to get well. There are still so many things I want to do.”

In contrast, I’ve become almost as intent on being as doing. The pleasant surprise in “99 Things” is that there’s wisdom in its pages for both the contemplative and the activist. The book suggests learning sign language (No. 37) and helping people register to vote (No. 48), but also buying nothing for a day (No. 66) and lighting a candle (No. 17). In fact, this is the sort of book that could be given to people aged 8 to 80 because it is replete with reminders that we truly can find the remarkable in the everyday. A few of the suggestions seem banal at first, but the authors expound enough on what they’re proposing to appease more thoughtful readers.

For example, activity No. 1 is “Watch the sun rise.” Yeah, sure, go enjoy nature. That’s perceptive and original, I groused. Then I looked at that first entry again. While it does urge one to find a lovely spot to view a sunrise, it goes a lot farther, suggesting a hilltop view overlooking a city as a good spot. And it notes that Christians have gathered on hilltops early on Easter Sunday since the mid-18th century to praise “the risen Jesus.” Should the sunrise you see be particularly amazing, “99 things” offers scientific explanation in addition to crediting God, the creator.

“The spectacular colors are due to an effect called Rayleigh scattering,” the authors state. “Particles in our atmosphere cause the light of the sun, which is constantly white, to split into its component colors. The most common particles, oxygen and nitrogen, cause the light to be scattered at the frequency that we observe as being the blue spectrum.” At sunrise, the distance light travels to the human eye is greater than at other times of the day, so the blue light is more scattered and more from the red and the orange ends of the spectrum can be seen.

So seeing a sunrise, with this book as guide, could be not only inspirational, but enlightening. Other entries continue in a similar vein, offering insight into what the reader may gain and how much time each step may take. There’s also the requisite blank space with each entry to record a few memories.


First published in England by author Graystone, the book was adapted for a North American audience by Bostrom, a writer and Presbyterian clergywoman.

Its worthiness lies not in its format, but in its title. For it reminds us that our days, while numbered, are only as limited as we allow them to be.

(Cecile S. Holmes, a longtime religion writer, is an associate professor of journalism at the University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Her most recent book is “Four Women, Three Faiths.”)

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!