10 things I love about Boston

8. The Public Garden

Astute readers may notice that most of my 10 favorite things are on the Cambridge side of the Charles--even Josh Lederman y Los Diablos mostly play in Somerville and the western suburbs. And when I started to make the list, even I was surprised to see the Public Garden appear on it. "The Public Garden? I hardly ever go there."

But frequency isn't really the same thing as quality, is it? And each single time I've sat in the Garden has been a perfectly cultivated little jewel of memory, not unlike the Garden itself. My first day in the city, when I'd come to interview at BU, sitting and realizing that I had to live here, I just had to. A long twilight talk with a former student and good friend, after I'd ended a five-year relationship. Eating ice cream with Mr. Improbable, a month or so into our relationship, when he'd cut short a trip to New York to get back home to me. Sitting by the lake after I'd decided to get a dog, looking at all the different breeds that went by, asking myself which one was right for me.

I don't pass through the Garden often, and I stop and linger even more rarely. But somehow it's become the whole city in miniature for me. When I need to think, not just about life, but about life in Boston, that's where I go to do it.

Maybe now that I've realized that, I'll go there more often. Maybe not. Some things are better left as special occasions.

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