Zen and the art of sitting in traffic
Monday, October 18, 2004Trees can grow in concrete. Cars are like people. And it is easier to reach your destination if you have a road map.Stewart Bitkoff has come to these conclusions and hundreds of other observations while spending thousands of hours sitting on the Major Deegan Expressway.
Bitkoff, a student of modern mysticism and an expert in therapeutic recreation, now hopes his words will help bring inner peace to commuters.
His book, "How to Attain Enlightenment on the Major Deegan Expressway," is available for download at http://thedeeganproject.com and copies will be handed out at New York Penn Station for free starting today.
"I did the commute on the Deegan for close to 10 years," he said. "One of the spiritual realities that is experienced and understood is that we are all interrelated in some way.
"You are in traffic because some guy is changing a tire and you are stuck. It can literally affect thousands of people."
Such experiences led Bitkoff to write: "If you have ever wondered at the interrelatedness of man, consider the effect of one stalled car on the highway at rush hour."
Leon James, who teaches a course in traffic psychology at the University of Hawaii, said time in the car can be very contemplative.
"On the days when I am in control of myself, rather than going crazy, I feel very peaceful," he said. "I am not rushing and I don't have crazy thoughts."
But at other times, emotions can get the better of the driver. James has been taping his own thoughts while driving for the past 20 years to study thinking patterns.
"What I discovered was how partially irrational and partially insane my thinking was," James said.
Bitkoff, 58, works for the state of New York as a senior clinician at a psychiatric hospital, he said. In his 20s, he studied under two "spiritual masters" who helped him focus his faith.
Raised Jewish, Bitkoff no longer practices organized religion, although he said he remains deeply spiritual.
"Basically, I believe in God and praying to God," he said. "To me, that is the light."
Bitkoff's book mixes frank observations with spiritual notions and is similar to many inspiration genre publications. He can often be found in the passages, which are usually no more than a few paragraphs.
For instance: "Do not let me mislead you, often, my commute is boring and repetitious."
Other passages hit home with anyone who has ever been behind the wheel.
"Yesterday, I left work early and got caught up in stop-and-go traffic. There was construction on the northbound Sprain Parkway. I must have been in this for twenty-five minutes. It was 90 degrees outside and my air conditioner didn't work."
Or: "Sometimes, when caught in stop-and-go traffic, I feel like I am in a cage. I can't wait for the traffic to open up and be free of the entanglement."
Bitkoff said those thoughts came to him as he drove, in moments of mental clarity akin to a deep meditation.
"Those things happened to me," he said. "All of those things. I'm not making them up. They are the questions of my own search and my own journey."
With "Enlightenment," Bitkoff hopes others will find such moments and share them. His book asks those who read it to pass it on to another and then make a contribution to a charity of their choosing.
The idea is to make sitting in traffic have meaning beyond just commuting.
"I think we have all asked, driving on those monsters of a highway, what is the purpose of all of this?" Bitkoff said. "Have hope."
E-mail: sforza@northjersey.com