Old Father Time had nearly dissipated all but a very few remaining hours that are left in 2025.

Old Father Time

I, too, am aging. In a couple of weeks, I’ll be 83. Social Security has a Life Expectancy Calculator. In a nanosecond, it will provide what the actuarial tables predict a person’s longevity. I just checked my life expectancy. They estimated that a male with my birthdate will be 90.2 years old before I kick the bucket.

So, what am I going to do in the remaining 7.2 years? Lurking in the back of my head is the fact that I danced with death twice on my dancefloor of life. Will I have another successful dance? Another bothersome reality is that one’s physical and mental acuity doesn’t improve during one’s twilight years; it lessens. Finally, a litany of totally unforeseen things can occur.

Case in point. Rob Reiner and his wife were killed in their home by their son a couple of weeks ago. That is an example of an unforeseen event. Rob Reiner could have had another decade of life, according to Social Security’s Life Expectancy Calculator.

Reiner was a great actor, filmmaker, and director. America grew up with his character, Meathead, in All in the Family in the 70s. Then he started directing a litany of great movies. Interestingly, Reiner directed and produced The Bucket List, which was a great movie and was a box office moneymaker. It was released on December 15, 2007, and he was killed on December 14, 2025.

The Bucket List was both a funny and a tragic film about two old men who were terminally ill. Realizing that their clocks were ticking, they embarked on their last road trip before they kicked the bucket. The two characters were totally different types of old guys. One was a mechanic, and the other was a wealthy billionaire.

Nonetheless, what they had in common was that they were dying from lung cancer. While in the hospital, they create their bucket list of things that they would do together on their road trip before dying. During crossing off items on their bucket list, they expressed feelings of failure and things that should have been done differently.

However, after seeing much that they wanted to see during their three-month trek, one of the old guys dies. The other old guy speaks at his friend’s funeral. This is a small part of his eulogy: “the last months of his life were the best months of mine. He saved my life; and he knew it before I did. I'm deeply proud that this man found it worth his while to know me. I think it's safe to say that we brought some joy to one another's lives.”

I have a bucket list. During my journey down my yellow brick road of life, I have spent a great deal of time visiting places throughout the world. However, my list would contain places that I wish I had seen. I want to spend time in Bhutan and visit the Chorten Stupa, which is perched on the side of a steep Himalayan mountain range.

Another area that I would like to visit would be the Stans: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in Central Asia. That area was part of the Silk Road, which dated back to the 2^nd century BCE until the mid-15^th century. It was a 4,000-mile trading link between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

The Philippines is another country that I’d like to visit. At the end of WWII, my father visited parts of that country while waiting to get a boat to return to the States. Also, my web administrator lives in that country.

Finally, Mongolia is on my list. I would love to search for Genghis Khan’s burial site. Interestingly, all the locations are in Asia. Nonetheless, I am in my early 80s, visiting those eight Asian locations is beyond the pale. Even a cursory visit to each location would take a year and loads of money.

My bucket list contains personal items. I would also like to get my family in Myanmar along with me to be able to immigrate to Fort Frances, Ontario, Canada. Trump won’t allow anyone from Myanmar to even visit the States. Ti Ti was planning on spending Christmas with me in Crown Point, IN. We would have spent Christmas evening watching Song Sung Blue at a local theater.

If traveling in Asia were costly, I can only imagine what it would cost to bring my family of 5 and my great-granddaughter’s family of 4 to Fort Frances, Ontario, Canada, to supply housing, furnishings, clothing, and countless other necessities.

I remember Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson in The Bucket List, sitting looking at the Great Pyramid of Giza. Freeman is explaining to Nicholson what the deceased Egyptians face at heaven’s gate when they die.

I don’t know whether some deity will ask us those two questions or not. However, I’m sure those remaining in the world after I kick the bucket remember me and how I answered the dual questions: “Have you found joy in your life? Followed up by “Has your life brought joy to others?”

I have had my share of joy on my journey down the yellow brick road of life. Also, I know that I have brought joy to others, especially in the past dozen years. Nonetheless, there is a seeming oxymoron about joy. What is fascinating about those two Egyptian questions is that they are essentially the same question. It can be seen in my mantra: “It is in giving that we get.” We can’t bifurcate giving and getting. The giver gets as much joy as the receiver. The more joy you get, the more joy you receive by giving. You can’t be a giver without at the same time getting joy.

Case in point. Ti Ti sent me a carved wall-hanging and two scarves, one of which she made for me for my birthday. Obviously, I was ecstatic. When I wrote to her after receiving the gifts, I asked Ti Ti who was happier, the giver or the receiver. She replied, “It means a lot to know the gifts made you happy. As for who is happier, I’d say it’s a tie! Seeing you delighted makes my heart so full, and I couldn’t ask for more.”