Driving me Crazy - In Reverse Gear!

My daughter will soon get her driver’s permit; this rite of passage instills some degree of fear into even the most stoic parents … and I am probably not the most stoic of parents (ask my daughter)!  So this afternoon, after giving my car a quick sponge bath (to get rid of the syrupy sap slopping [I just like the consonance of 'slopping' but it is actually dripping!] from my neighbor’s beautiful Oak tree) on my way across town, I found myself thinking about the best way to be a driver … the conversation with myself brought me around to kavannah, intention.  Now to be fair, I had also been reading a book by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (Davening : A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Prayer) and had just finished his chapter on kavannah where he guides the reader to think about and act to allow oneself the space, gratitude, openness, permission to connect with GOD or (for more secular folks) the mystery  beyond us, in deeper and more meaningful ways.  So the question became – Can one drive with Kavannah? 

I witnessed this in rural Bavaria a few years ago!!

Now I know what you astute readers are thinking, why would it improve your driving to work towards maneuvering yourself into a more spiritual state? Well, I think it’s more about the intention aspect – to bring yourself to the act of driving, understanding that you are now in relation with a powerful machine capable of killing anyone, really, and understanding that you have the power and responsibility to deliver yourself and your passengers safely.  It means paying attention to what surrounds your car (use those mirrors!) but not your cell phones and videos and what-not. It means knowing and trusting your skills behind the wheel and when to say “I can’t drive right now.”  It means staring road rage in the face and declaring that you will not succumb to it. These actions, no doubt, may be difficult for many of us. Perhaps that’s the point!  Reb Zalman explains that the act of praying may become rote for many of us (just as the act of driving becomes rote after a while) and though that rote-ness may be a source of comfort; it may not provide meaning and lift us spiritually.  Instead, we might ask “What is my purpose in being here?”, “How shall I embrace kavannah?” Similarly, our comfort behind the wheel makes us complacent, forgetting our purpose of driving safely.  Thus my challenge is to consider kavannah before turning the ignition.  May all of us, newer and more experienced drivers, work to stay in the moment.