The Bench

There once was a man from Nantucket,
(My bad, that's not the way this one goes...)

There's this guy who sits on a bench everyday. The bench is in kind of a sheltered spot so he never gets too hot from the sun and never finds the wind too chilly. He likes to sit there and watch the rides in the nearby amusement park. From his bench he can see the Ferris wheel top and the peak of the roller coaster right at the spot where it plunges straight down.
Sometimes another would join him on that bench. Together they would sit and watch.

People pass him by all day long going into the park, sometimes stopping to rest beside him before moving on. Most days he just nods and says "how do you do." He isn't really asking, just being polite.

With the insolence of youth a child asked him one day why didn't he go into the park and enjoy the rides? He responded with a list of perfectly acceptable reasons ranging from "I'm too old...this darn back of mine" to "the lines are so long and the cost is so high" finally the child shook his head and said "scaredy cat" before running off to climb aboard the plunging roller coaster.

Other days if the person has been sitting on his bench for too long he'll ask why they aren't in the park enjoying the rides. He tells them how much better it is to go experience those rides than to be sat on that bench beside him. Most times they agree and then carry on their way. But every so often, one of those people sneak a regretful peak back over their shoulder, and if he ever cared to look at them maybe he would see a little bit of hurt in their eyes.

He, of all people, should understand that sometimes you just need to sit on the bench and watch.