ON THE BENCH

POST # 370
  

 A TYPICAL PARK BENCH                                                     

On the bench.  A long time ago, when I played ice hockey on a regular basis, spending time on the bench would be my least favourite part of the game.  Thankfully, I enjoyed my share of ice time, so my bench time was limited.  In fact, my time on the ice was so generous, that there were moments when I was happy to return to the bench, for some rest.

In recent days, I decided to re-visit the idea of bench time, seeing as I am in between house sits at the moment.  Even at this late stage in a wanderer's life, it's not too late to try something new, and that was a small part of the motivation to give this a go.  The main reason however was to "walk in another person's shoes" as it were, and try and gain some empathy for all of the poor souls in this world, who have only a park bench to sleep upon each night, if they're lucky.  I, on the other hand have lived such a privileged life, that this sleeping option has never been a regular occurrence.  Don't get me wrong, I certainly have had some memorable sleeping experiences, including sleeping by the side of a freeway in Melbourne Australia, with my umbrella as my "tent" on which was plastered a big Canadian flag image. I can only imagine what all of the people driving by on the way to work thought about seeing a Canadian flag, with a pair of legs sticking out from underneath it.  But I digress.

So back to the present sleeping arrangement.  It began five days ago, and so far at least, I have come through without really too much to complain about, and I certainly have gained some of  that empathy that I was looking for as well.  Thankfully, the weather has co-operated for the most part, although on a couple of the nights, I experienced some pretty chilly winds. In addition to that, last night and on Friday night a trio of skunks wandered by, so it was fortunate that I wasn't sleeping on the ground.  Other than that, it has been smoother than I had expected.  Only one more night to go, and then I will be on to my next venue.  By the time that this is posted, my bench days will have come to and end, (at least for now).

If you use the measurement of one second, and consider that as one moment in a life, then at this stage along the journey I have experienced well in excess of two billion moments, (2,033,683,200), as of today, so a mere six nights on a park bench is minuscule by comparison.

I certainly have had some interesting dreams from this new endeavor, and perhaps there may have even been a dream about being on the bench at an ice hockey game.


maximizing my moments, (all 2 billion + of them)


Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer