Characters In The Community

Walt Disney’s ani­mated char­ac­ters have always been pop­u­lar. Part of the rea­son has to do with how his king­dom of talk­ing ani­mals are so much like peo­ple we know. I love small town life. Here peo­ple are just who they are. No sense in pre­tense. Every­one knows that what you see is what you get.
It is refresh­ing to know that peo­ple can just be them­selves, with­out their hav­ing to have a stage pres­ence. No per­sonas needed here. Over a period of time, you see Disney’s king­dom come to life. Any town has a story, but where I live is worth a movie.
For exam­ple, here in Sander­sville, we have a man that has a tree ser­vice. He is part sur­geon and part Paul Bun­yan. You see his trucks around town, and you can­not help but smile at his style — espe­cially as you get to know him. Ray­mond Pounds did a lot of work for this church dur­ing the week of the Fourth of July. He did exactly what he said he would do and even a lot more on his own dol­lar. He is a gen­er­ous man that tack­les the tough­est jobs around town.
I got to know him and his crew for the week they were here. Since then, I have had this haunt­ing feel­ing that he is a char­ac­ter I know from some­where else. One morn­ing it dawned on me that our very own Ray­mond Pounds is Shrek with a chain­saw. Big. Gruff on the out­side but big-hearted on the inside. He can run a chain­saw bet­ter with one hand than any­one else I have seen using two. He takes down trees like he is slay­ing a dragon. After the job is done, he parks his trucks loaded with tree trunks beside the fin­ished job and raises a flag on his boom truck (about 4 sto­ries high). He has met the enemy and has con­quered! He cares for his crew more like a par­ent than an employer. Their safety is his chief con­cern. From his cherry picker, he has the best view in town — maybe that is what gives him his unique per­spec­tive.
I hope some­one like him is in your com­mu­nity too. If not, you are the poorer for it. Then again, I have not met the Disney-esque char­ac­ters in your town either. You might even be one of them.