New York isn’t just a big place - it is MONUMENTAL. I mean that literally. It is full of monuments. You’ve probably seen a lot of them yourself without really looking at them (unless you are like my father - an dedicated plaque reader wherever he is). I thought it might be nice to stop and take a look at some of these monuments - starting with one of my favorites.

One of my favorite monuments and one I make a point of stopping to consider each time I pass it, is the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial in Riverside Park - just at 72nd and Riverside Drive. There are, as one might have expected, many many more monuments across the city to men than women and among those dedicated to women, even fewer of them are statues or prominently placed. So this statue of Eleanor - located at such a cross roads (for pedestrian as well as vehicular traffic) is a stand out on that front. But for me - one of the best things about it is another way it differs from the majority of the other monuments.

It’s relaxed.

Look at her. Nestled in a lovely shady spot, half-leaning, half-seated on a large boulder, legs crossed casually in front of her - arms, hands and face all coming together in a pose of pensive contemplation. From the side, one might notice that her posture isn’t all it should be but how much more true to life is that than the ramrod stiffness more commonly found in works such a these. Much more so than the statue of Eleanor at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington D.C. She is - even in bronze and granite - far more approachable than those guys on horseback, standing on plinths or surrounded by lines of -faux Grecian columns.