Making An Impact

Cruz'n' for Kindness
August 23, 2018

Although I live in the middle of town I have the good fortune to have a couple of acres of woods adjacent to my back yard. The yard flows naturally into several flower gardens interconnected with paths that Sue and I have cultivated over the years in the margin of the woods. Amongst these gardens are several sizable ash trees once beautiful but now dead and brittle, a plague shared by many Milton property owners.

Well, last Thursday, we experienced a powerful storm that felled one of these. It crashed and splintered right across some of our garden areas. What a mess. As I started the clean-up on a very hot, steamy day I realized quickly that my small chain saw, while effective on the limb wood, was significantly challenged on the trunk. I was hot, tired (this is not my kind of work – my tools are pens and legal pads), and beginning to get cranky with the thought that I would have to rent a larger saw and the job that I thought I could complete in a couple of hours would likely spread to a couple of days. I like completion, a concept that now seemed elusive in regard to this tree.

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About then, Terry, one of three Culver brothers who lives a couple of houses up from me, was moving my way with his larger, more powerful saw. Terry didn’t hem and haw around. He simply and intentionally started chunking-up the trunk, a task beyond my saw, skill, and experience. He worked diligently in the heat and humidity until no trunk remained. Then he went home.

Terry and I talk from time to time and we wave across the yards. We don’t have history together nor much connection other than we live on the same street a couple of houses apart. Terry wasn’t bothering about whether he “loved” his neighbor. He simply acted as if he did.

As Terry was packing up his saw he said to me, “We neighbors have to take care of each other”. On reflection, what a day! Not only did I receive unsolicited help with my downed tree but I also received a powerful, graphic lesson in how to live.

This little drama in Milton will not make the national news but maybe it should if only to counterbalance that miasma of world news, fake or real, that we hear and, quite frankly, seek every day. In his book, Staying Is The New Going, Alan Briggs states, “You can live your life in a small radius and make a big impact.” Terry clearly demonstrated this concept. You can bet that what I experienced with Terry, his unsolicited, freely offered assistance, his kindness, was the real thing and it moved me to my core. Terry you are Milton and together, through your kindness we are Milton. #WAM

Jon Cruzan is a community catalyst. He tries to catch people being kind to one another. When he does, he lets them know about it. It makes them feel good, it makes him feel good and colors the world in a positive way. When Cruzan is not on his bicycle or picking up his grandsons from school or networking with community members, you might see him picking up litter or working to make Milton better in other ways. Cruzan can be reached at jcruzan@charter.net. He invites you to check out his blog - Cruz'n' for Kindness -  at cruznforkindness.blogspot.com

Here is a picture from a year ago showing Terry (foreground) & his two brothers, Craig & Kringle, helping a neighbor trim a hedge.  These guys have values from which we all could learn.