A Proposal in the Park
Once in a while, folks, something happens that's just as nice as it can be—all of a sudden, like money from home when you really need it. I was out the other morning for a hike in the park, and I saw a couple of young guys with big white paper bags doing something or other by a bridge over a tiny creek. Whatever, not my business, onward I trudged. The trail is 2.5 miles exactly and takes 40 minutes or so. I came back toward the bridge from the opposite direction, and before I got to it I saw a table by itself in the woods, like something from Alice in Wonderland:
I slowed my pace for a bit, just taking this in. Such things aren't usual in this park, although it's a very nice park. I kept going, and I saw the bridge, which had floral-type decorative garlands entwined around its handrails:
And then I looked down at the creek and saw what the object of the exercise was:
Awww!!!! The nice young fellow grinned at me, and I gave him a thumbs-up and said "Good luck!" Then it occurred to me that other people might like their bedraggled hearts warmed as well, so I asked him if he minded if I took some pictures, and he gestured like it was on the house, so I did.
Now, folks, my guess is the young lady in question answered him in the affirmative. Just my guess. He could have taken her to a fancy restaurant, or some seaside setting, or a balloon ride or something. But the approach he took was at once homey, improvised, and yet surprising and magical. He went to a good bit of effort, put some thought into it, and above all, above all, understood that this is about romance. I think she said yes.
I ran down the whole scenario to some friends and mentioned the one thing I might have done differently: The wine on the table was Yellowtail shiraz, an inexpensive but creditable table wine better for barbecuing or pasta than for proposals. Dude! We're talking champagne here, bud, from France. My one friend sniffed at this lapse. She's deeply warmhearted and anything but stuffy, but she does have a grownup's sense of the done thing. "Maybe he'll use champagne," she coolly speculated, "the next time he proposes to somebody."
We talked a bit after that about how you'll excuse just about any lapse if you like someone (and if you don't, no gesture is likely to make that change). I'm pretty sure the young woman likes this guy. You can teach people about wine. Teaching them how to be romantic is a much tougher proposition. At any rate, I did sound out other people on the wine question. Actually I went from that very bridge to a community garden in the same park. I'm a member, and we were having a picnic that day with food that we'd grown. I got talking to a couple of women, and told them the story, waving my arm in the direction of the bridge and saying that the proposal might be happening that very moment, as we sat there.
And I mentioned the shiraz. They saw no problem. "Maybe it's their favorite wine!" said the one. "Maybe they had it on their first date!" said the other.
Maybe, indeed. I don't know, certainly. I also don't know how the event came out, and probably never will. But I suspect she said yes. And I suspect that was a good choice. It's pleasant to think so, at any rate.
I slowed my pace for a bit, just taking this in. Such things aren't usual in this park, although it's a very nice park. I kept going, and I saw the bridge, which had floral-type decorative garlands entwined around its handrails:
And then I looked down at the creek and saw what the object of the exercise was:
Awww!!!! The nice young fellow grinned at me, and I gave him a thumbs-up and said "Good luck!" Then it occurred to me that other people might like their bedraggled hearts warmed as well, so I asked him if he minded if I took some pictures, and he gestured like it was on the house, so I did.
Now, folks, my guess is the young lady in question answered him in the affirmative. Just my guess. He could have taken her to a fancy restaurant, or some seaside setting, or a balloon ride or something. But the approach he took was at once homey, improvised, and yet surprising and magical. He went to a good bit of effort, put some thought into it, and above all, above all, understood that this is about romance. I think she said yes.
I ran down the whole scenario to some friends and mentioned the one thing I might have done differently: The wine on the table was Yellowtail shiraz, an inexpensive but creditable table wine better for barbecuing or pasta than for proposals. Dude! We're talking champagne here, bud, from France. My one friend sniffed at this lapse. She's deeply warmhearted and anything but stuffy, but she does have a grownup's sense of the done thing. "Maybe he'll use champagne," she coolly speculated, "the next time he proposes to somebody."
We talked a bit after that about how you'll excuse just about any lapse if you like someone (and if you don't, no gesture is likely to make that change). I'm pretty sure the young woman likes this guy. You can teach people about wine. Teaching them how to be romantic is a much tougher proposition. At any rate, I did sound out other people on the wine question. Actually I went from that very bridge to a community garden in the same park. I'm a member, and we were having a picnic that day with food that we'd grown. I got talking to a couple of women, and told them the story, waving my arm in the direction of the bridge and saying that the proposal might be happening that very moment, as we sat there.
And I mentioned the shiraz. They saw no problem. "Maybe it's their favorite wine!" said the one. "Maybe they had it on their first date!" said the other.
Maybe, indeed. I don't know, certainly. I also don't know how the event came out, and probably never will. But I suspect she said yes. And I suspect that was a good choice. It's pleasant to think so, at any rate.
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