Bucket List

This is a piece I originally wrote for the American Society for Surgery of the Hand "Perspectives" in December 2020.  

Bucket List

I put down the deposit last week.  I had checked cancellation policies and insurance coverage before booking the trip to the Pantanal.  2020 has been challenging for everyone; traveling has been one of many casualties.  The year started out well enough—snorkeling and paddling at an eco-resort in Panama in January, the World Ice Art Championships and the Northern Lights in Fairbanks in March.  Then the world shuttered, and travel was both imprudent and impossible.  At this point I would be happy to hug my parents, share popcorn at a movie, and listen to live music.  Modest dreams have taken on Mount Everest proportions. 

I stopped having a bucket list a few years ago.  It wasn’t because I had checked off all the “once in a lifetime” adventures.  It was because several close friends had died unexpectedly.  They did not live to see retirement, to enjoy time with family and friends, to see the wonders of the world.  As physicians we are well aware of the frailties of the human body but don’t always consider our own mortality.  I left private practice and embarked on a self-styled sabbatical to re-evaluate my path.  For six months, I road tripped through ten American national parks, white water rafted down the Zambezi, visited the monasteries of Tibet, and walked along the Great Wall of China.  I operated and taught in Malawi and Myanmar.    

The pandemic has reminded us that our lives are not entirely in our control.  This global crisis has drawn focus to the inter-relatedness of the climate crisis, economic disparities, and public health.  The trafficking of pangolins, a wet market in Wuhan, and international flights can lead to a nursing home outbreak in Seattle and a shut-down of elective surgeries.  The planet is changing in rapidly alarming ways.  In 2006, I visited Antarctica, camping on the permafrost, kayaking through bergy bits, immersed in glaciology and the unique biology of the polar region.  Each penguin species was uniquely adapted to its icy setting.  Five years later, my kayak guide informed me that Petermann Island (a spot we visited off the Antarctic Peninsula) was now green, and the Adelie penguins were gone.  

So while I don’t have a bucket list, I do have a Doomsday Travel list.  I visit sites at risk of losing their unique biodiversity.  Our planet is as fragile as our bodies.   Coral reefs are blanching, rainforests burning, the polar ice caps melting.  Deforestation has resulted in habitat loss for Borneo’s orangutangs and Madagascar’s lemurs.  The indigenous cultures of the Amazon are being threatened by the oil industry.  The Inuits are dealing with shorter winters, less ice, and more open waterways.  I don’t have the answers to these daunting problems, but I can document, educate, and advocate for change.  Next stop, the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland, spanning Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay.  I seek the elusive and mythic jaguar.  I hope I’m not too late…