PARKING LEGALLY ON PARK BENCHES

PARKING LEGALLY ON PARK BENCHES

By Andy Weddington

Saturday, 24 April 2021

I've got some of my best yarns from park benches, lamp posts and newspaper stands. - O. Henry

Benches - some wood, some metal, some with metal plates etched with names of departed loved ones - tastefully accent a local park; aside lake and paths and trails and parking lots. 

A couple times a week - random days, random times - we park legally on a (random) park bench.

We look. We listen. We talk; and with strangers - some with dogs.

Last week we befriended Anna, Ruby and Katie, and Gabbie.

Fourteen nice legs. 

Dog names like Spot and Rover are so old school.

So guess which the dogs?

Only Katie spoke - English.

Anna, Ruby, and Gabbie pawed and licked and submitted to belly rub.

There'd been issues had Katie so (mis)behaved.

Anna and Gabbie spoke.

Ruby did not make a sound.

Discourse is always about the dog; the joy of a dog. Nothing more.

It's understood the park a different world. The bench sacred. Contentious topics taboo. 

Fifteen to 20 minutes we visit and then back to looking, listening, and talking. 

Bird calls. 

Mom, noting the intense blue sky, opined it's as if we're in a great big room with dozens of languages being spoken and only those speaking the same language understand.

Fans of 'The Andy Griffith Show' will appreciate Sheriff Taylor's witty answer to inquisitive son Opie as to how he'll know the wellbeing of the baby birds he's mothering, "Winkin'll tell Blinkin, Blinkin'll tell Nod, and Nod'll tell Barney." Because that's what came to mind and quoted for mom. She laughed aloud. It seemed birds within earshot laughed, too.

Police officer wisdom. Dad mentoring. Prove otherwise.    

That's right, a great big room and neither of us speak a lick of bird.  

Though not expert in languages - human nor bird - we can differentiate sounds. 

While parked we've heard English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, Italian, Swedish, Russian, and others we can only guess; understanding only English.

Chirps, cheeps, whistles, shrills, and caws far outnumber consonants and vowels; understanding none but concluding all relate to mating, food, and danger.

What else is there?

And then the observation of flight with logical link to freedom came up.

Freedom.

We agreed anything less unimaginable.

A tiny bird landed within inches of our feet. 

Still we stayed and whispered. 

Trusting, the bird walked, pecked, looked, and certainly listened. 

Then flew away. 

We wandered to park on another bench aside the lake. 

A pair of ducks and a pair of Canadian geese nearby.

Our quacks and honks ignored; but not by giggling children.

Though not metered, bench time expires. 

We exited that sane world only to cross back into chaos and insanity; substantiated by talk radio.  

A word came to mind yesterday afternoon that, in my mind, summarizes today's insanity ... tripe. Maybe because it rhymes with snipe, I don't know.

This morning early arrived email, with link, from a friend of some 38 years - Marine, Navy SEAL; by any measure, warrior. 

Our rank insignia - bird; an eagle.

Of course, freedom came to mind; contemplating recent bench time with mom.

I watched the video - two young Marines who did not take flight but faced with danger stood their ground. English, American flavor, their language. They (two of millions over centuries) volunteered and sacrificed (their) lives for (our) freedom. 

You should, too, watch: https://youtu.be/Q23gKyHWjjg 

And consider regularly parking legally on a park bench - to look, befriend dogs and strangers, listen to mom or dad or any elder stories, and tune in to bird calls while contemplating freedom. 

Sanity. 

America needs a vaccine alright - a regular injection of sanity.

Courage, the example set by those two young Marines - core.