On This Bench........

 Walking in Central Park today I began to study the brass plaques affixed to the benches. There must be thousands of benches scattered throughout the park and even though I have rested on several different ones I had not bothered to read the inscriptions. I believed all of them to be memorial plaques and reading them would be akin to perusing tombstones in a country cemetery. They would detail the person's name, date of birth, date of death and perhaps a sentimental verse about their life. There are those types of plaques on some of the benches but when I came across a quote from an animated movie I knew I was going to have to start looking a little closer.

The first plaque I leaned over to read today was this:

Kung Fu Panda? I had no idea there were quotes from that particular movie that were brass plaque worthy but apparently someone did. Well, my goodness I have a LOT of benches to read if the messages are going to be this inspiring and profound.

It makes for a pretty stop-and-go stroll when you are trying to absorb all the messages from loved ones, parents of small children, friends, and even corporate sponsers but it's worth it. There are sweet ones like this that make me think Leonard is one lucky guy:

more philosophical ones like this:

And then there was this one:

and the bench next to it:

But did he? And more importantly did she?

At $7500 a bench (all tax deductible since you are contributing to the Central Park Conservancy for bench upkeep) that's a pretty big, public investment in a marriage proposal. Sitting on a park bench in Central Park has just become much more interesting and thought provoking.