i'm a fan of bench dedications. I had hoped we could have one for my mother but it is not a practice in Belgium and it was not possible. I like that the dead can quietly sit in the middle of the animation of kids at play, of people walking the dog, chatting, running, flirting...
Thanks for this post Richard. It's odd, when I was reading the dedicatios, it came to my mind a strange feeling, like if those persons came back to life. It reminded of a memoir I wrote to my grandmother. I put it ir her coffin, right next to her heart:
"So long, old lady. You did it in the simplest way. With smiles and hugs, as natural in you as the green of your eyes and the love in your heart."
Very typical to see these in Ireland too but there is always that sense of story that it hints at but is never apparent... You simply think, " humph that person really must have been loved by many people and this must have been a special place for them." And you sort of move on...
Seeing some of those paired dedications to husband and wife or mother and daughter is really something special and pulls at the heart strings... In its own way, absent of the true story behind it, it can prompt a fictional narrative as you ponder what happened.. how their lives went.
I don’t want to monopolise space, but would react to the first few as follows, with your kind permission.
I was immediately struck by the fact we know the month in which Norman Pratt was born, but not that in which he passed from this mortal coil.
I think I feel Chakrie’s smile from here. Almost. The dates look too clinical, however.
Is nuclear power keeping us safe, these days? The debate has turned somewhat: that nuclear power may yet save us from climate disaster, although we’ve bungled often enough to realise its peacetime dangers, as well as its wartime fallibilities. And nuclear weapons haven’t yet preserved us from carpet bombing and unprovoked conventional attacks. Conventional: how about if we disarmed a few “conventional” warmongers?
I’m reminded of Edward Bond’s “Short Book for Troubled Times”:
“I wonder whose feelings people are expressing when they say they wish to retain nuclear weapons. Would they go to the victims of these weapons – the innocent children and their families, all of whom would be burned – and with their own hands burn them to death with a blow torch? Would you? – all of them? If you would not yet still say you wish to retain nuclear weapons, then you are not expressing your own feelings when you say it, even though you think you are, and call your decision democratic.”
Very common in the uk you kind of feel sorry for a bench that doesn’t have one.
i'm a fan of bench dedications. I had hoped we could have one for my mother but it is not a practice in Belgium and it was not possible. I like that the dead can quietly sit in the middle of the animation of kids at play, of people walking the dog, chatting, running, flirting...
Thanks for this post Richard. It's odd, when I was reading the dedicatios, it came to my mind a strange feeling, like if those persons came back to life. It reminded of a memoir I wrote to my grandmother. I put it ir her coffin, right next to her heart:
"So long, old lady. You did it in the simplest way. With smiles and hugs, as natural in you as the green of your eyes and the love in your heart."
...my favorite memories and daydreams...
Very typical to see these in Ireland too but there is always that sense of story that it hints at but is never apparent... You simply think, " humph that person really must have been loved by many people and this must have been a special place for them." And you sort of move on...
Seeing some of those paired dedications to husband and wife or mother and daughter is really something special and pulls at the heart strings... In its own way, absent of the true story behind it, it can prompt a fictional narrative as you ponder what happened.. how their lives went.
Wonderful collection, Richard - Our local park has similar benches facing the lake and all have dedication plaques attached to them!
I don’t want to monopolise space, but would react to the first few as follows, with your kind permission.
I was immediately struck by the fact we know the month in which Norman Pratt was born, but not that in which he passed from this mortal coil.
I think I feel Chakrie’s smile from here. Almost. The dates look too clinical, however.
Is nuclear power keeping us safe, these days? The debate has turned somewhat: that nuclear power may yet save us from climate disaster, although we’ve bungled often enough to realise its peacetime dangers, as well as its wartime fallibilities. And nuclear weapons haven’t yet preserved us from carpet bombing and unprovoked conventional attacks. Conventional: how about if we disarmed a few “conventional” warmongers?
I’m reminded of Edward Bond’s “Short Book for Troubled Times”:
“I wonder whose feelings people are expressing when they say they wish to retain nuclear weapons. Would they go to the victims of these weapons – the innocent children and their families, all of whom would be burned – and with their own hands burn them to death with a blow torch? Would you? – all of them? If you would not yet still say you wish to retain nuclear weapons, then you are not expressing your own feelings when you say it, even though you think you are, and call your decision democratic.”