A Place to Pause

A reflection by Ayman Fouad Abdelgawad

I like the modest ambition of a public bench. It does not ask what we intend to buy, how long we plan to stay or whether our afternoon is making sufficient progress. It offers a place for the body to stop.

So much of public life now happens in places where welcome is attached to a transaction. The distinction can disappear for people who can readily afford a coffee, yet remain very visible to someone counting the price of one. A bench gives strangers permission to occupy the same place without needing an excuse. That seems a small provision until we imagine a city in which every seat belongs to a customer.