Ray, the subject of a Meet a Scientologist episode on Scientology Network, is a normal guy you’ve never heard of, devoted to his family, beloved by his co-workers and respected by his colleagues in the greenhouse construction industry.
The what? Greenhouse construction industry?
Yes, the building of greenhouses. You know, those glass buildings where you grow flowers all year long?
A new generation of crises and demand has called for more efficient means of growing the crops that feed the planet. In 1950, your grandma lived in a world of 2.5 billion people, give or take. There was plenty of food to go around, so greenhouses mass-produced pretty flowers to decorate her dining room and its food-laden table.
But the world population has more than tripled since, while the planet itself has regrettably remained the same size. With the increased demand for food, the food itself—the crops and the nutrients supporting them—is no longer growing fast enough and plentifully enough to satisfy the 8 billion-plus stomachs that crave food right now.
“We’re putting these machines together that feed the nation.”
Greenhouses—the right kind of greenhouses—are crucial because they enable the growing of crops all year long, sometimes in places where they’re not supposed to be able to grow. Even more crucial, they are needed as colossal laboratories where seed research companies can develop plants that need less water, less fertilizer and less time to grow. The ingenuity and intricate know-how required to construct such facilities is where Ray Pound shines.
As a boy who dreamed of being a builder someday, Ray is now living that dream. “Building is just—that’s all I’ve known,” he says. “It so perfectly fits my personality of just wanting to put things together. A day of building a greenhouse, you can stop and you can look at that day and go like, ‘Wow, we’re putting these machines together that feed the nation.’”
It wasn’t always that way—waking up eager for the challenges of the day and striding forth through life with purpose and drive. As a young man, Ray was adrift with no anchor. He did what he was told without a thought of choice in the matter, and may have continued on that well-trod path of so many who plod their way to socially acceptable “success” while harboring secret frustrations about the hand life dealt them.
But a personality test in the mail led him to the Church of Scientology, where he took the very simple yet powerful Success through Communication Course. “It was absolutely incredible doing the Communication Course,” he remembers. “Going from this kind of introverted, socially awkward guy, you know, to having a social life.”
Thanks to the lessons learned on the course, he began to communicate with others, with the world and, most importantly, with himself. He rediscovered his childhood zest for building and, with his brother showing him the ropes, he soon became an ace at greenhouse construction, beginning his own successful company.
“I can’t imagine any profession for me that would be any better than what I do right now.”
You and I have our own goals and desires, the thought of which quickens our pulse and brightens our life. When we’re chomping on our stir-fry or munching our celery, we may take the factors that got those items to our table—dirt, fertilizer, roots, crops, harvests and greenhouses—for granted, but thank goodness for people like Ray, who live for it with every rising and setting sun.
Case in point: The Asian citrus psyllid, an insect that spreads a disease with an insatiable appetite for citrus. The disease is incurable, and the results are devastating—worse than a hurricane. Whole orchards struck dead and useless in a swath.
The disease came to California. There was no time to wait for science to come up with a cure. The enemy was here now.
Ray’s challenge was to come up with a way to grow the small citrus plants in his greenhouse without bringing the citrus psyllids inside along with the raw materials, equipment and workers coming in and out. That way, the plants would have a chance to survive. He developed an ingenious system resembling the air lock that an astronaut uses before entering the body of his ship from space. In this case, raw materials and equipment enter an exterior hall with powerful fans that blow anything clinging to them right out the door. The outer door is then shut, airtight, and the inner door opens for the now bug-free objects to enter.
The strategy worked, the plants grew and the problem was solved. Thanks to Ray Pound and his crew, California’s citrus crop was saved.
“I can’t imagine any profession for me that would be any better than what I do right now,” Ray says. “What Scientology has helped me to understand is who I really am, and it just has spilled over into all parts of my life. It makes life a lot of fun.”
So if you live in California and happen to be enjoying some OJ while reading this article, pause between gulps and raise your glass in thanks to Ray Pound, the happy guy you’ve never heard of, who is setting an example of what happens when you follow your dreams: life becomes sweeter and healthier for you and everyone your life touches.
