A Fly Fishing Bumper Sticker

If I were to put a fly fishing bumper sticker on my Honda, I might go the humorous route and choose: “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you can get rid of him for the weekend,” or “Men and fish are alike. They both get into trouble when they open their mouths.”

Perhaps I might seek to convey an existential truth like: “A bad day fishing beats a good day at work,” or “I fish, therefore I lie.” For my car, however, I would probably choose this favorite saying: “I’d rather be fly fishing.”

We’ve all seen those “I’d rather be” bumper stickers. Some people use their bumpers to express how they would rather be at the beach, the golf course or in some warm sunny climate. Whether at work, or fighting traffic, or freezing through a cold winter, we all daydream of being somewhere else, like the beach or the trout stream. It’s fun to dream and put bumper stickers on our cars. But Judaism teaches the value of being present. Instead of thinking about being somewhere else, we should try to focus on where we are. That way, we do not miss something important or even amazing happening right before our eyes.

In Hebrew, the word for being present is henaynee, which means “Here I am.” When God first spoke to Abraham and Moses, they replied: “henaynee,” Here I am. They were ready to listen to God and had nothing else on their minds. Being present in the moment is what allowed Moses to find God in the first place. Moses was sheparding his flock on the mountain, when he saw a bush burning that was not consumed. Now how can you tell if a bush burns without being destroyed? Only if you spend enough time looking at it. Moses was living in the present. Like Moses, if we dedicate a little bit of effort to being present, we may discover some amazing things.

Sometimes this happens to me when I am on a plane. It is easy to think of the hours we spend in the air as dead time, wasted time. We are just trying to get somewhere else. But when I try to be present on the plane, often something nice happens. I look out the window, and see a beautiful set of clouds or the sunset. I hear a young girl telling her mother how excited she is for the upcoming trip. Or at night I see a moonless sky, and the dark ocean in all directions, and I feel the peace of the sleeping earth. Being present allows us to appreciate the small miracles of everyday.

There is another level of being present: Being there for those you care about. In our multi-tasking, cell-phone, internet world, sometimes it is hard to be present for our family and friends even if they are sitting right next to us. I have friends who will go out to dinner, but spend half the time on their cell phones, sending e-mail or checking the score of the game.

I am not immune from the temptations of technology either. Sometimes my wife and I will be in the living room together, but not paying any attention to each other at all! One of us is watching tv, and the other is on the computer. After an hour or two of this, I look up and realize that I missed an opportunity to connect.

Being present is a lesson that Bill Murray learned well in the movie Ground Hog Day. He is forced to relive the same day, over and over again, at least a dozen times. In the movie, Bill Murray lives in a prison of presentness. At first, he enjoys not having any tomorrow, eating whatever he wants and getting into trouble. Then he becomes desperate. Finally, Bill Murray learns the lesson of being present. He uses the day to help others. He connects with a woman and falls in love. He appreciates all the small things that he can do and see in the world. Finally Murray wakes up to a new day and begins his life anew.

We do not have to be stuck in the same day in order to learn the lesson of being present. We need only to stop spending so much time dreaming of being somewhere else or not paying attention to each other. Then we may discover small miracles all around us, and find ways to connect to those we love.

Maybe I will get one of those bumper stickers. Mine will not say “I fish, therefore I lie,” or even “I’d rather be fly fishing,” although both of these statements are certainly true. Instead, I think my bumper sticker would read: “I’d rather be right where I am.”