Washington Window: March 2008: Miracles by the Mile

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By Paul Canady
Washington Window
Vol. 77, No. 3, March 2008

Carlisle, Pa., is a town of around 50,000 people. It is home to Dickinson College, Penn State’s Dickenson College of Law, and the U.S. Army War College (formerly the Carlisle Indian School). Carlisle is also where Interstates 81 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike are connected by a one-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 11. On maps, this stretch of road is called Harrisburg Pike. To the locals and those involved in the trucking industry, it is known as the Miracle Mile.

This small corner of the world sees nearly 20,000 tractor-trailer trucks a day, coming and going nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They stop at one of the four truck-stops in Carlisle for diesel, food, supplies, laundry or to sleep. Seeing more than 500 trucks parked in one lot is one of the most surreal things I’ve ever seen.

In January, I had the privilege of spending two weeks in Carlisle working with Dan Lehigh, a truck-stop chaplain, as part of my studies at Wesley Theological Seminary. It was an eye-opening experience. There were two other seminarians with me, one from Wesley and one from the Methodist Theological Seminary of Ohio. Chaplain Dan is one of three full-time truck-stop chaplains employed by the Pennsylvania Council of Churches. He is ordained in the Church of the Brethren, and oversees the largest of the three truck-stop ministries.

During our weeks in Carlisle, we immersed ourselves as much as possible in this life, while also being a part of the greater community. Carlisle is much like many mid-size American towns. Many of its residents commute each day to jobs in Harrisburg. But trucking is its own culture. Truckers have their own lingo, lifestyle, practices, tools and toys. Drivers are often seen as the dregs of society, but they are, like each of us, beloved children of God.

Chaplain Dan’s ministry is just as counter-cultural as “driving truck.” That became obvious to us when we attended a gathering of local clergy one morning. There were about 20 other clergy from a variety of Christian denominations sitting around the room, all of them actively engaged in parish ministry. Yet, here sits Dan Lehigh, chaplain to the trucking industry in Carlisle. He gives truckers a voice in the community that they would never have otherwise. A full-time chaplain to the homeless would be more mainstream than Dan.

Are truck drivers a “saintly” group? Not all of them and not always.

Do truck drivers act aggressively on the interstate sometimes? Sure.

Do I? Do you? Likely.

But most of the time we only hear about trucker drivers when they do something to cause an Interstate foul-up. Once about every three blue moons or so we hear news of a heroic act by a driver, usually helping a passing motorist.

This dynamic of a culture within a culture is one that you usually see within a college town, such as I experienced in Murfreesboro at Middle Tennessee State University. As you drive out of the downtown Carlisle area, you can feel the change in the surroundings, you can see it becoming more industrial. You start seeing a few local trucking companies, Daily Express being the biggest. Then you reach the underpass of I-76, and it’s like you’ve crossed some magical threshold into Trucker’s World, where Dan’s little Subaru Forester is the odd man out.

Next time you see an over-the-road truck (the kind that has a sleeper cab), pay close attention. How easy is it to make eye contact with the driver compared to other drivers on the road? How easy is it to even see the driver? Distance makes people alien, and the difficulty of seeing a truck driver makes it very easy for us to refer to drivers as “them,” to separate ourselves from those who drive 40-ton machines for a living. When we are driving long distances, we aren’t even stopping at the same places as truck drivers for food or fuel. And if we are, we are in separate parts of the store.

Doubtless, “driving truck” is a culture all its own. But it’s not one that exists apart from the rest of America. It’s a culture that exists within the same fabric and fiber in which we all live, breathe and have our being.

Together, we are the Body of Christ, and we are each individually members of it. None of us can say we do not need another part. The truck culture needs us, and we need the truck culture.

Paul Canady is Deputy for Youth Ministry in the Diocese of Washington, and is pursuing a Masters of Divinity at Wesley Theological Seminary. You can read more about his truck chaplain ministry by visiting http://truckinginpa.blogspot.com/.

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