You Must Row A Little Boat Before Steering A Ship

You Must Row A Little Boat Before Steering A Ship

By: Diana Scharffenberger

Reflecting back on his life lived on the open water; Richard Bode shares his lesson-packed story full of youthful adventures in his book First You Have To Row A Little Boat. Bode is constantly struggling to find the meaning of life and using sailing to tell his tale.

Bode uses several metaphors to help readers relate to his story. Sailing represents life’s journey, wind represents unexpected troubles that are thrown our way and Bode represents us.

Photo Credit:

http://hypervision2.blogspot.com/2011/02/sailing-progress.html

Although I enjoyed how Bode related life through metaphors and the sea, his book came off slightly negative and discouraging.

He talks about how he was taught to sail as a child and how he carried those lessons throughout his entire life. They showed him that life doesn’t always go as planned and doesn’t always go the way you want it to.  These vital lessons were thought provoking and deep. Unfortunately, Bode later reveals that he fails to teach his kids how to sail. He fails to share what was so impacting and life changing to him, with his kids. This, to me, was disappointing.

There are unexpected and unwanted encounters you must face. You must endure the choppy water before you can reach smooth sailing. You must row a little boat before you can steer a ship.

Photo Credit: http://oldbookends.blogspot.com/2011/11/first-you-have-to-row-little-boat.html

Row Row Row Your Boat, but What if You Get Seasick?

by Jacqueline Bello


Taste the salty air. Rock with the ever-constant roll of the ocean. Feel the sea breeze blowing your hair.  For many individuals the life of the sea provides an escape, an alternative universe where life's great quandaries seem to make sense and where everything man thinks he knows is tested. This is especially true for author Richard Bode in First You Have To Row A Little Boat, a book of life lessons learned, metaphorically compared to the difficult task of learning to sail a sailboat in the Great South Bay of Long Island, New York.

Caption: A sailboat similar to the one sailed by the young Richard Bode. 
SAILBOAT RACE ON CHESAPEAKE BAY, by Mike Lien (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SAILBOAT_RACE_ON_CHESAPEAKE_BAY_-_NARA_-_548532.jpg), via Wikimedia Commons

"I am filled with a lore which I learned as a boy, and I failed to pass it on to my sons and daughters, who will now fail to pass it on to theirs"(p. 2).

Bode begins the book by expressing his regret for never teaching his children to sail. Perhaps a deeper illusion to his realization of the lessons he learned, but did not realized he had learned until reaching adulthood. The reader quickly learns of the escape sailing provided Bode throughout his life. Having lost his parents at a young age, working tirelessly and passionlessly at his career, all gave him reason to seek such escape from his daily trials. In the solitude of a sailboat he learned lessons about humility, patience and fate in the difference aspects of life.

Caption: Richard Bode aboard a sailboat. 
Retrieved from https://www.hachettebookgroup.biz/authors/richard-bode/

The life of sea may be appealing to some, what if you get seasick?

While I agree with some of the lessons taught by Bode, I struggled to follow the sailing metaphor at times. The book was filled with boat jargon that someone unfamiliar with sailing could not understand. As someone who gets seasick, I had no interest in learning these lessons via a boat and would have preferred a simple book of life lessons. At times the book is choppy, as is the ocean on occasion. There was no true structure or build up. A chapter filled with excitement was too quickly followed by three chapters of smooth sailing.

I do not believe this book is for everyone, but if you are a sea-lover looking to learn a few valuable life lessons, this may be the book for you. If, like me, you are more of a land-lover perhaps something a little more straight forward and less metaphoric would be a better choice.