Life's a bench

There is an amazing bench just outside Bill's Coffeeshop on the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City. Each day this bench serves a stage for an array of the dramas which make up human life. Right next to the sign for North Hall, this bench seems to draw people to it.

I have seen love bloom and love fade on this bench. I have heard parents reassure and seek reassurance. I have seen people sitting, standing, sleeping and even dancing on this bench.

Often, this is a wonderful experience to watch -- like a couple soaking up the sun and each other on a warm autumn afternoon. Or the daughter reassuring her mother that, yes, she is eating right.

Sometimes, the bench is a stage to discuss moving experiences. "It was awesome," I have heard many times as I passed by. And, often, and simply: "Cool." People curl up and stretch out on this bench as they consider something as profound as the meaning of life or something as silly as the direction of a little beetle in front of them.

Other times there is humor in the interaction on this bench:

+ Two people sharing a rapidly melting ice cream + A couple trying to stay dry by huddling under a plastic garbage bag during a summer shower

+ A guy singing along to his headphones + A weary soul reassembling his bags of cans for recycling.

Then there are moments when I walk by and wished I had a box of Kleenex. One recent evening I heard this fragment of a conversation: "Are you saying that we're not going out anymore?" I saw a young woman standing on the bench talking. But at first, it appeared she wasn't talking to anyone. But then I caught the light of her cell phone and knew I was listening in to a break-up.

Another night a young man sat on the bench talking on his phone. I caught just one line: "I think we should just be friends," he said.

I'm not sure what makes this bench special. It doesn't have a great view or the most comfortable seating among the benches near North Hall. Yet there is something which attracts people to this particular bench.

I've not seen so many slices of human life on other benches around that campus. People seek it out day and night to talk -- really talk. Perhaps there is a little spirit of Bill Sackter in this bench. See what you think next time you walk by.