Apart and Beyond

The man is resolved and clearly indefatigable.
He has identified a mission to which he devotes
himself and upon which he spares no efforts to
achieve. He resembles in purpose, if not in
presence, Sisyphus, for despite his prodigious
efforts, his goal will never completely be achieved.
He has selflessly set himself the task of remediating
the harm to natural surroundings that others
cavalierly inflict. His dedication to the effort
purely altruistic, he seeks no acclaim and no
notice comes his way, as his work consumes his
days. Where others insult the landscape with the
soiled and degraded detritus of urban life,
discarding what is no longer valued, he tracks,
isolates, gathers those items in homage to nature.

His burgeoning task is never-ending, for it seems
that no one cares of humankind's indebtedness.
With his voluminous knapsack stretched taut with
its torn, broken rusted pieces of discards, he
strains his way out of the ravined woods, back
arched with the effort, legs pushing uphill under
the weight of his burden. That which must be wrestled
out of the deep wooded pockets too large and
cumbersome, is pulled patiently uphill. The
objects retrieved as various as overstuffed chairs,
deck furniture, matted mattress coils, shattered,
rusted bicycles, highway signs, boards and fencing,
tires, wheel-less wagons and coils of barbed wire.

He is a large man of sturdy physique and middle
age. His clothing shabbily utilitarian as befits
the task he has set himself loading the resulting mass
of refuse time after time into the back of his truck,
he hauls it to recycle depots; his self-appointed duty.
Not entirely a thankless job, since the obvious
satisfaction he derives must fulfill in him a valuable
and deeply-rooted imperative. He sets himself apart
and beyond; no mere example, but an exemplar.