I Just Want To…

I just want to:

• Build a custom shower with two heads
• Raise a dog from puppy till death
• Need to buy appreciating assets for tax-purposes
• Build a desk my great-grandchildren fight over
• Learn how to cook more french-food
• Write The Great American Novel
• Have a third child unexpectedly
• Become fluent in Spanish
• Not need anyone
• Be a better son/brother/boyfriend
• Have a non-traditional wedding that people talk about for years
• Build another boat
• Change the people I come into contact with
• Die with a Wikipedia page. A long one.
• See how long I can live
• Have a death I both desire and deserve
• Read every damn great book ever
• See humans on Mars. Maybe I’ll die there
• Not be hated by my Ex’s for what I could have been
• Learn Fencing
• See the Singularity
• Go to Polo Matches
• Mentor people
• Change the world
• Finally poach and egg without cheating
• Live in France for a time
• Let those I love know I love them and I would die for them
• See the people of North Korea free
• Own a Lamborghini
• Collect Porsches
• Collect Watches
• Start my watch company
• Pay off a few mortgages
• Surf-Fish 500 more times
• Be my favorite author’s favorite author
• Be a prized poet
• Watch my kids in a play
• Learn guitar
• Live on the beach
• Have a pied-a-terre in the city
• Go to Mexico with my Dad in “the beater truck”
• Be a wonderful Uncle
• Save lives
• Be a philanthropist
• Write the book I am most afraid to (It’s either a flop or a classic)
• Record that 808’s and Heartbreak mixtape
• Put my poetry on soundcloud to music
• Release a book of short stories
• Win a Pullitzer or National Book Award or Both
• Do a commencement speech
• Drop in on a writing class at Columbia
• Honor the Memory of Marina Keegan
• Meet Jay-Z
• Live at the Four Seasons
• Buy shoes for kids too poor to have them
• Get purple silk sewn inside that beat brown leather number I travel with
• Fly private with someone I admire
• Honor my father’s memory till the day I die
• Let me mom know she is unreal awesome
• Build a personal library that endures
• Be a hero to children
• Treasure my keepsakes
• Grow a real beard – okay, perhaps a bit too far-fetched
• See my novel ‘A Terran Spring’ on the silver screen – take my mom as my date to the premier
• Sell a company I own
• Be larger than life – always
• Be humble – like Bunny taught me, always
• Save something historical for posterity’s sake
• Sail thousands of miles
• Believe in G-d
• Fight for things that matter – and win
• Speak for those without a voice
• Make my sister cry from happiness
• Visit a few graves I never did
• Honor those who made me who I am
• Grow my own capers
• Return to somewhere I miss and be glad it ended
• Be thankful for regrets
• Get better with age
• Do a couple more things I fear to see if it’s worth it
• Be my lover’s hero
• Create a handwritten list of all my favorite movies for my grandchildren to watch when they are older
• Produce an episode of ‘Bubbas’ – if still deemed worthy by 35
• Own a great telescope
• Garden
• Be a great dad
• Always accept myself
• Embrace change with romantic curiosity
• Witness a miracle
• Be content
• Stay hungry
• Catch the perfect Halibut and kill it, saying a real Native American prayer as I do
• Invest in a restaurant – not a crappy suburban one
• Never forget how lucky I am to be me
• Never apologize for who I am
• Own a cat (I hate cats – but so did Papa [Hemingway])
• Discover something
• Be funny, always
• Continually mature
• Go pee right now

Edit: [post publish – same day night] – just counted and there are exactly 100 things on this list…how beautifully eerie.