I’ve made it my goal in life to sit on every bench I ever come across. And BTW, I don’t just technically sit for a split second and get on with it, I try to pause for at least a mental moment and register the view. Someone put a bench there for a reason, and that reason is to allow people a place to sit but also facing in a direction that’s worth looking. Behind every bench is at least one person, and they put at least a modicum of thought into what other people should look at, so I try to give that stranger-I’ll-never-meet the respect of at least looking at and registering what it is they think I should be registering. Also I read the memorial plaques. Most benches are memorials for people not famous enough for a statue. Famous people suck, benches are for people worth remembering. People who were loved get benches, the least a person could do is read the plaque. If these benches don’t have plaques they’re soulless corporate benches, anathema I name them. I’ll still sit on them, but I refuse to enjoy myself.