More for the bucket list

We saw "The Bucket List" on Friday night. It was funny and tender and even though the list had lots of travel and daredevil feats on it, it also had some emotional things -- like laughing so hard it makes you cry, bringing joy to someone else, kissing the most beautiful woman in the world who turned out to be a granddaughter. Good stuff, some of it outlandish and predictable, yet definitely doable. It makes me want to refine and add to my list again. One thing that I definitely need to work on is being a friend -- spending time with my friends no matter what. My usual excuse for not keeping in touch is my workload. Well, that's no excuse. I need to make time and I will make time.

I also need to say a word or two about the death of Heath Ledger – from a possible overdose of sleeping pills – at age 28. And his poor mother and father had to find out from the media. He was so young and beautiful, and so talented and successful. What would make him take his life? I know they are saying that they think the overdose of sleeping pills was accidental, but how could that be really? You either take too many pills or you don’t. Unless he died of natural causes like a heart attack or stroke and that’s very unlikely for someone his age. It was stated that he was having trouble sleeping and working very hard. Sounds like symptoms of mania to me. But in the end, he had the same destiny as my son – to die too young and leave his family with grief and guilt that will stay for the rest of our lives. It makes me so sad. It brings so much back to me. Every death of a young person is another reminder.