So, what's left on my 'bucket list'? I enjoy travel and there's always plenty of world left to see, but right now I don't especially feel the need. Equally, there aren't many possessions I hanker after. When I think about it deeply, my remaining wishes seem to be mainly about life-style rather than 'things', per se.
With seventy percent of my best-case life expectancy behind me, I'm thinking about cutting out meat and alcohol; reading a few philosophers; being sure to exercise daily and - most pressing of all - increasing my time for zazen, which has slipped in and out of focus over forty years. I know when I sit I'm more settled & able to accept there's only so much time before my clockwork runs down entirely. I want to face my final years with composure.
My father built his own house, and I've long harboured a mild desire to do the same. In fact, as I travel I'm forever spotting features - a turret, a roof, a balcony - I'd love to incorporate. No architect would want involvement in such a mangled project, but it amuses me. It's a pipe dream that'll never be realised.
Perhaps the solution would be to invest energy in designing a bungalow-sized tomb [1], as did the Facteur Cheval at Hauterives. However, the irony is that because of the Church's strictures the only thing interred in his 'Palais Ideal' is his wheel barrow!
Notes