… in the middle of the courtyard of a barracks was a small bench. Next to the small bench, a soldier stood guard. No one knew why the bench had to be guarded. It was guarded around the clock – every day, every night, and from one generation of officers to the next the order was passed on and the soldiers obeyed it. No one expressed any doubts or ever asked why. If that’s how it was done, there had to be a reason.
And so it continued until someone, some general or colonel, wanted to look at the original order. He had to rummage through all the files. After a good bit of poking around, he found the answer. Thirty-one years, two months and four days ago, an officer had ordered a guard to be stationed beside the small bench, which had just been painted, so that no one would think of sitting on wet paint." (Thanks to Cris Tovani for the excerpt)
From: The Book of Embraces
By: Eduardo Galeano
So, what benches are you guarding?
Which ones will you consider abandoning?
Which ones must you stop guarding?
What benches do you guard that DO matter?
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