Life of Wry

Somebody or something took a big bite out of the Compassion Corner Earthbench.

Honestly.

I guess where there are young (I assume), angry, disenfranchised, bored, self-obsessed, destructive punks (everywhere, right?), there will be vandalism.

I never had any fantasy that the Earthbench would somehow be immune to common vandalism, I was just hoping that the vandal guys, whoever they might be, would maybe this time just leave the bench alone… maybe recognize the irony in committing violence upon a monument dedicated to kindness and compassion and open-heartedness.

Well, no.

A funny: A few weeks ago, very shortly after the City installed, at long last, a nice informational plaque describing the bench’s history and purpose (the text of which I wrote), somebody made off with it (the whole plaque–laminated flyer inserted into a grooved metal stand).

I’m like, wha…?!  What on earth would somebody want with that?

No sooner had I reported it to the City, it showed up again. As though it were never gone. Whoever stole it decided, I suppose, it wasn’t worth having (right?). Or, maybe they read the plaque and realized that stealing a modest and sweet little information sign about a feel-good community effort to build a monument to compassion and gift it to the City was kind of a lame, classless act. And mean spirited, too.

Well that vandalistic act resolved itself.

But this bite out of the bench? That’s going to take some work to fix.