Ray used to dream of being Superman as a kid. He still remembers watching the original series on his family’s black and white TV.
“I’d just run and jump like him,” the 70-something pushes out his arm as though he’s about to fly. “And away I’d go!”
Ray also wanted to fly away from a childhood that felt like kryptonite, which he eventually did. “That’s when I decided to change everything in my life from the negative aspect to the positive aspect,” he explains.
Now Ray’s home is filled with dozens of super heroes. The figurines and posters are displayed in every room, on every wall, every surface. Everywhere you look you’ll find something super. “It’s just something that keeps me feeling up,” Ray says.
Although he realizes he’ll never start flying like his heroes, Ray says he never stops striving to wield the power of positivity.
“I made that,” he says pointing to a Superman symbol above the word ‘positive.’ “Every time I walk out the door, it reminds me how to be!”
So, slower than a speeding a bullet, Ray heads outside, armed with an arsenal of jokes. “There’s only 12 seconds in a whole year, ya know?” he says, before smiling.
“January 2nd, February 2nd, March 2nd…”
When he’s not striving to make strangers smile, Ray unleashes his power of perception. “I’m spying the ground for what’s laying there,” he says, demonstrating how he moves his gaze from side to side. “[To spot] what people are dropping.”
He says he’s found countless things. The most memorable thing was found at his local grocery store, near the shopping carts; he noticed an envelope on the ground with a $100 bill poking out of it.
“I picks it up and it's got weight to it,” he recalls. “I went to the bathroom in the store, counted it. There’s 35 $100 dollar bills!”
Ray says he took the $3,500 in cash home, thinking if he didn’t do it, somebody else would. “I’m sitting here smiling really nice,” he remembers thinking. “But the person that’s lost it is probably crying their eyes out.”
So he discharged the power of perseverance and found a way to contact the person who lost the money. “He’s coming at me with his arms stretched out,” Ray recalls.
“He’s got tears pouring down his eyes.”
The man expressed his gratitude, and Ray realized the potential of his powers. “You give love to people and hopefully you get it back,” Ray explains. He says you get the love back because it feels super being super.
While Superman could leap tall buildings with a single bound, Ray wraps up our conversation by attempting to leap a tall funny-bone with a single joke. “What’s the name of the roundest knight to sit at King Arthur's roundtable?” he asks before answering with a smile.
“Sir Cumference, of course!”
