A First Pass at My 'Before He Leaves' List

My awesome sister-in-law sent me an article about this great idea: a parental bucket list of things to do with your little one before he or she grows up and moves out. It got me to thinking. I feel like we should have one of these for pretty much every day of our lives. There was that famous Randy Pausch lecture awhile back, where a professor who was dying of liver cancer participated in a series with the theme "what lecture would you give if it was your last on earth?" The talk was life changing. The big takeaway was that it's important to know and do the things you want to do, whatever the context.

So, what are some things that would go on my 'Before He Leaves' list for Junior? These are arranged in no particular order, and the list is not at all exhaustive.

• Teach him to appreciate coffee shop conversations. Obviously it'll be apple juice instead to coffee until a certain age, but I truly hope he can come to appreciate the joy of meandering, enthusiastic conversations about ideas and life.
• Take a family road trip down the West Coast with him.
  
• Visit the Rockies. A more beautiful landscape I have never seen in all my days.
  
• Read tons of books with him. And talk about them. A lot.
• Teach him pointlessly grandiose words (and when to use them). In my humble opinion, a robust vocabulary holds many keys to a subtler and less alienating understanding of the world.
  
• Create an awesome theme room for him. I'm thinking Star Wars. Lis is on board. X-Wing bed? Yes, please.
  
• Teach him to meditate. For a long time, I've held dear the image of a child and I meditating in front of a large, bright window overlooking the sea.
  
• Convey to him the utter importance of building strong family and friendship bonds. Sine qua non.
  
• Teach him how to take courageous risks. I'm not talking about being stupid, but understanding the value of going outside his comfort zone for the sake of personal expansion and personal ethics.
• Teach him how to enjoy both technology and its absence.
• Encourage his active meddling with spaces and technology. Hacked iPhones, self-programmed computer and web environments, all-black bedroom walls... He needs to know that the wild and crazy world is his to shape.
  
• Visit a country of his choosing. This could be challenging when he then proceeds to say Sealand, but hey, you only live once.

There are a ton more, but I'll stop there. Looking over these, I realize that there's a lot of teaching in there, but I am an estranged university professor after all. I'd love to hear about other people's list items of things they must do to complete their human journey (either with regard to kids or not).