“Turn Signals”

I hate waste. I'm careful to turn lights off when I leave a room. I don't let the water run in the sink or shower even when I'm in a public locker room. I'm forever trying to convince checkout clerks that you really can put more than one object in a grocery bag. But I'm not sure that North Carolina drivers' ability to boast that they never had to replace a burned-out turn-signal lamp on their car for as long as they owned the vehicle is a useful form of conservation.
When I learned to drive, the instructor taught me that you should always put on your turn signal 200 feet before the intersection, and that you must always use your turn signal when preparing to change lanes. It is so automatic a habit for me that I do it even when I'm on a deserted street late at night. That probably seems silly to most people. But I think it touches on something much more significant.

How many of you have had this experience: You are preparing to make a right turn onto a busy street. You look to your left and wait for the approaching car to pass. Just as that car nears the intersection, it makes a sudden turn into your street. You could already be well on your way if the driver of the other car had only used a turn signal.

Okay - so I get annoyed because I have someplace to be and I'm forced to wait unnecessarily because of another driver's thoughtlessness. First, a confession: impatience behind the wheel is a Bernard Family trait. (My four-year-old niece, riding in a car stopped at a traffic light, saw the signal change - and when the car ahead didn't move immediately she called out to it from the back seat "Go! Green means go!" Talk about "from generation to generation….") But what truly irks me is that both of us could benefit if the other driver had simply used the turn signal.

I am often amazed at how people can proceed through their days seemingly unaware that they cohabit the planet with other human beings. Has our society become so technologically advanced that we no longer have a need to interact with others? The cable company tells us that we can get all our entertainment in our living rooms when and how we want it. We no longer have to wait in line with others, sit quietly during a performance from beginning to end so we don't disturb those seated around us, or even speak to a box office attendant or video store clerk. E-mail and answering machines allow us to communicate without the burden of listening to another's response.

We read the newspaper or watch television news and lament what seems like unnecessary strife and conflict in the world. We can't understand the narrowness of vision that leads to anti-Semitism, racism or homophobia. It's hard to comprehend the callousness that allows one person to inflict harm on another through rape, burglary or violent crime. We are troubled and we feel helpless to change things. But increasingly, we live lives in which other people are an unwanted nuisance or an obstacle to our plans.

A simple turn signal. With one easy gesture, we let others know where we are going so that they may adjust their direction in concert with us. We acknowledge that we are not alone out there on the road, and that we can make things easier for others with little or no inconvenience to ourselves.

A digital timepiece certainly tells us the time with great accuracy. But there is aesthetic charm in a clock that only functions when all of its interlocking gears work in tandem. A single line of melody possesses its own beauty. It blossoms as the notes rise to a peak. It languishes on a long note and rushes forward in a series of short notes. But when it becomes intertwined with a second line of counterpoint, its character and beauty are transformed through its interaction with the unique shape of its counterpart. It stretches with increased tension; it soars with increased energy; it finds repose with a breadth and grandeur it cannot achieve on its own.

Perhaps we can't single-handedly create world peace. Perhaps we can't unilaterally eliminate civic tensions and strife. But perhaps we can create harmony in the space around us by embracing the dance that is communal life.

B’shalom,
Andrew Bernard
Cantor