First You Have to Row a Little Boat: Reflections on Life & Living

by Richard Bode

When I was a young man I made a solemn vow. I swore I would teach my children to sail. It was a promise never kept.

If the condition of fatherhood has taught me one thing, it is the difficulty, if not utter impossibility, of passing on to my offspring the lessons of my separate life.

“Get in!” he said. “The first thing you have to do is learn to row a little boat.”