Who is Driving the Car?
“Click…Click…Click…” There I was, sitting with my son in the car of the roller coaster as it made its slow climb up the rail. Palms sweating, heart pounding, my throat getting increasingly drier as we reached the top.
Suddenly we plunged over the top of the hill and flew down the twelve feet or so at a breakneck speed of about 14 mph! Ok, this was hardly what you would call a thriller. After all, the venue was Memphis Kiddie Park and, as the name indicates, it is geared for “kiddies,” not adults. So no, in all honesty my heart was not pounding nor were my palms sweating (well, maybe a little bit).
Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, it is almost mandatory for parents to take their children to this miniature amusement park on a summer day. My parents took me and now that I am a parent I have made the obligatory trip with my children.
One of the rides at Memphis Kiddie Park is the cars that go around the track. You know what I am talking about; they have them at many amusement parks. Basically, the child goes into a little car which goes around a track on its own until it comes to the end.
On one of my first trips there I put my oldest child, Hadassa, in the car and watched her take her “drive.” True to form, Hadassa was really into it. She grasped the steering wheel with both hands, just as she had witnessed her parents do when they drive. There she was, turning the wheel this way, then the other way, as the car went around the track. I looked around and lo and behold! All of the other kids in the cars were doing the same – turning the steering wheel with much intensity. Hadassa would occasionally wave to us as she drove past, feeling so grown-up and proud of the fact that she was actually driving a car!
As I watched her I couldn’t help but think to myself how funny it is that these kids think they are driving the cars by themselves. I mean they REALLY think they are driving the cars! HA! HA! Don’t they realize the car is on a track and it won’t go in a different direction, no matter how hard they turn the wheel or which direction they turn it?
But aren’t we adults the exact same? Aren’t we just as stupid? There we are, moving through the “track” we call life; minute my minute, day by day, week by week, month by month and year by year. We “turn the wheel” this way and that. We make decisions in business, child-rearing and relationships. We accomplish tons and we wave at everyone around us (whom we are sure are admiring us, no doubt!), proud of what we are accomplishing.
We think we are the ones in charge and that everything that is going to happen to us will come about as a result of our actions and inactions. We think we have complete control over how things in life will turn out – who we’ll marry, what our jobs will be, what our financial status will be, how our kids will turn out etc. We are so caught up in turning the wheel of our lives this way and that we forget that our control is actually very limited.
Hashem puts us on a track and determines our fate. Sure, He gives us some control (unlike Hadassa in the car) and allows us some input, but to a large degree we can’t change things. He gives us the illusion that we have more input and control than what is reality.
When I left Memphis Kiddie Park that day I left with more than just some pictures, a sunburn and the standard headache generated by being in the proximity of scores of little children screaming their little heads off. I left with a lesson in life.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Yosef Koval
