Three Old Men Sitting on a Bench

    Some photographs resonate. This photo, hanging on a restaurant wall in an Albuquerque Olive Garden, resonates. It is a black, white, and gray ode to old age. These three old men have seen history and are sitting on a bench watching life pass them by. Old men often have histories that are burnished and worn like rocks going through a rock shop tumbler. Their rough edges have been smoothed and now they lean on each other as they watch glorious young women flaunting the latest designer clothes, their trim bodies moving against skirts and blouses that can barely contain their curves. These old men sit and their conversation moves from wars,to divorces,to children,to politics,to sex, to money. Growing old is unavoidable but sitting on the right bench, in the right place, with the right people, is, in my mind, still a few years off for me. Fooling myself,however, is something I have experience with.