There is a different view of the country from a car than a plane. As the ground sails past you at 30,000 feet, all you see are the outlines of farmland and cities. At night, you may see the glow of thousands of lights in population centers. By day, the occasional highway connecting people to one another. In a car, you see thousands of faces, some filled with anticipation about their destination, others filled with sadness or longing for the people they have left. There are the people with little patience who ride up behind you like some NASCAR driver hoping to beat you to some imaginary finish and there are those with too much patience who clog up these highway arteries with no sense that there are other cars on the road.
Last week I drove, first with Benjamin, from Akron to Houston to San Antonio. It was time for him to move into his dorm. All told, it was a shade under 1500 miles. No we didn’t do it all in one day. Our goal was to make reasonable driving days and see parts of the country. And yes, to get his car down there for him to use this year at school. We traveled through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas. Tennessee is kind of the mid point of the trip so we decided to stop outside of Memphis for the night.
It is amazing what you see when you drive. The faces of people in their cars, some smiling, some not, some singing, some stoic. There are parts of our country that seem so non-descript filled with farms and animals and the occasional home. There are large cities and small towns and the roadside villages of hotels and fast food restaurants that pop up every few miles.
I think most amazing was the parade of big trucks filled with goods for a consuming world, which traveled down the road at all hours of day or night. Like an Olympic dance, they moved in and off the highway seeking their destinations. And while we complain about the high costs of goods and fuel, there seems to be no shortage of either.
All this is lost when viewed from a plane. And while the trip to Houston would have taken 3 hours instead of the 16 hours of driving, so much is lost in our desire for speed. You have heard me, time and again, bemoan the need for instant gratification in our world. It’s the child in the back seat who as we pull away from our homes on a trip begins to immediately ask the question…”Are we there yet?”
Driving teaches a great lesson. It is one of patience. In our rush, get to the point, existence, we often loose sight of the vistas of life. In fact, that may be one of the reasons for this Shabbat’s torah lessons.
This week, we read from Torah the continuation of Moses’ charge to the Israelites. And in fact, this week’s lesson is all about patience and courage, two very fleeting values in today’s world. It is also about not forgetting the past and not succumbing to the world which we are about to inherit.
It opens with that famous setting in which we are told that God has given us choices to pursue in life. We can choose the path of blessings or curses. God places before us two mountains, one lush and green and filled with blessing – Mt. Gerezim and one barren and rocky and cursed – Mt. Ebal. We have to choose.
The midrash then comments that the Israelites wanted to pass on their choice, they decided to walk between the two mountains. God then blocked our path. We have to choose which path we will follow … no sitting on the fence. So we chose to offer the blessings on Mt. Gerezim.
Back to driving…its kind of like Google maps. You can drag your route all over the map and pick different roads. Each one comes with its own challenges and benefits. The trip is shorter or longer depending on your choices. But when push comes to shove and you have to choose, you have to decide on your path and stick to it.
On my return from Texas I drove by myself. The moments of solitude in the car were broken up by the occasional public radio station I could pick up or the mish mash of tunes I had loaded into my IPOD. The vistas were the same, the faces were more familiar, this time the rains came and washed the road of its travelers. The greatest challenge was the 10 miles of bumper to bumper traffic in Nashville. Fewer smiling faces on that stretch of the road and a lot of lane changing to get 10 more feet ahead in the traffic.
Driving you do see the world differently.
So from a Wednesday to a Monday, over 3,000 miles were traveled. Not much when you compare the travels of the Israelites. Their journey changed a slave culture into a community and mobilized a society to move mountains. As we near the precipice of the Promised Land, let me conclude with a reading from our Siddur
Standing on the parted shores of history
We still believe what we were taught
Before ever we stood at Sinai’s foot;
That wherever we go, it is eternally Egypt
That there is a better place, a promised land;
That the winding way to that promise
Passes through the wilderness.
That there is no way to get from here to there
Except by joining hands, marching
Together.
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