Bucket list? Best take a tip from King Tut

The concept of the “bucket list” derives not, as one might think, from the idea of a bucket full of ideas of all the things we want to do in life, but rather it is a list of things we want to do before we die or “kick the bucket”.

That takes some pressure off right there; it’s just like a shopping list, not like a bucket full of nippers burrowing into sand-cloudy water and hard to count.

But even if the list is like a shopping list with, say 10 items on it, it’s still hard. Should they be travel goals? Personal development goals? Money goals? Relationship goals?

Whatever they are, there’s a nagging sense of unease that the anticipation of the events may exceed the satisfaction we gain from their fulfilment and our sense of searching may not be extinguished by the ticking off of a goal.

Doing nothing is not an option. Research suggests that at the end of our lives one of the greatest regrets is for the things we didn’t try for whatever reason; because we were too tentative, or shy, or didn’t make the time or were just tired.

One of the items on my bucket list has always been to visit the pyramids of Egypt. My mother travelled there in her youth, rode a camel, was offered a scarf by a sheik in exchange for a kiss (she declined), and clambered through a pyramid to a chamber inside (virtually empty, unexpectedly small).

Years later, in a cluttered wing of a museum in the United Kingdom, I came across a sarcophagus which appeared to contain mummified remains. It seemed wrong that a body should be lying in a museum, offending some unspoken rule that the dead must be respected.

The attraction of this ancient civilisation, with its engineering skills capable of building the pyramids and its detailed rites and rituals concerning death remains. I’ve devoured books about the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb 100 years ago in 1922, wondering whether the so-called curse on those who trespassed was real.