Amid the Gold

Amid the Gold

Many an autumn day I’ve paused to admire this bench, and to rest. The gold leaves may not be real gold, but just their color lightens my spirits.

This is the second bench you reach on the way up steep and curving Beechwood Avenue to reach the library and the neighborhood beyond, where I lived when I first graduated college. I had no car then and walked the hill plenty of times, and since then to visit the library and friends and customers who live in that neighborhood. Being a frequent cyclist in summer, I am always happy when I can reach the top of the hill without stopping, usually some time into the summer when I’m back in shape. Otherwise, this bench awaits me and others at just the right point of exhaustion. There’s a bench closer to the bottom of the hill, but most people pass it by still having enough energy to get to the top. By the time you reach this one, perhaps with a backpack full of books, you just might give in.

This is what it might have looked like today if we had had a spot of two of sun, but the day was steadily overcast. Underneath the overcast, I can see the leaves are at their prime. I looked at the bench and the trees and decided to post this photo.

This photo is part of an occasional exhibit I have at Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall entitled “Carnegie Photographed”, a collection of 14 of my favorite images of Carnegie. Along with “Of Harps and Fig Leaves” it hangs in the reception hall between other shows.

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