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

In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.

Copyright 1993 by Richard Bode

Foreword Copyright 2012 by Jeffrey Zaslow

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.

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Second e-book edition: April 2012

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ISBN 978-0-759-52388-3

What a wonderful book it is! Pure joy.

Walter Cronkite

If you feel lost on this great sea of life, this book is a compass. Its powerful words will carry you like a gentle breeze toward companionship, toward love, toward the deepest self you are called to be. It will ultimately lead you home.

Regina Brett, New York Times bestselling author of Be the Miracle

This is a wonderful book, warm and thoughtful and beautifully written. It has a great deal of practical wisdom to offer us all in our complicated lives, but beyond that, it is a work of sheer grace. No one who reads it will ever forget it.

Reeve Lindbergh, author of Forward from Here

Richard Bode uses his lifetime knowledge of sailing to steer his personal ship to a new port through a stormy time of life. Literally a voyage of discovery, he takes his silent desperation to the sea for solace. A must-read for men stalled in irons and for the women who love them.

Joan Anderson, author of A Year by the Sea

Richard Bodes writing is effortlessly sublime, like ghosting along on a smooth sea on a sunny day toward a destination even more rewarding than one had imagined. FIRST YOU HAVE TO ROW A LITTLE BOAT reveals the most powerful but rarely discussed lures of messing about in boats. In Bodes fine memoir, sailors and landlubbers alike discover how sailing can transcend sport to shape our lifestyles and philosophies, and how the exploratory machines people use to venture upon the sea are not just playthings but powerful tools with which we plumb the depths of ourselves.

Steven Callahan, New York Times bestselling author of Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea

Inspirational Bode uses his great love of sailing as a metaphor for the tides of life.

Publishers Weekly

A simple title leads to an inspirational story. All of us can live better lives thanks to Rick Bodes narrative.

Gary Jobson, Americas Cup winner and ESPN sailing commentator

It is not often that a book comes along with the insight that causes one to stop and contemplate his own substance Bode has done with the sailboat what Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance does with the motorcycle He has given us his insights of life.

Commonwealth Journal (KY)

Illuminating.

Sailing magazine

Such an imaginative way to compare our sport of sailing to life. I really enjoyed how Richard shares his experience of sailing and how subconsciously it was preparing him for growth. Keeping life simple and appreciating the little things rather than getting caught up in the race or the idea of the adventure is an aspect of life that is easily forgotten these days.

Anna Tunnicliffe, 2008 Olympic gold medalist in sailing

The images he creates are simple and clear, and so are the lessons he derives from them.

Kirkus Reviews

Leaving you inspired to follow a path of which you decide to take in life, Rick Bode allows the reader to ponder with his view: So the only matter of consequence before me is what I will do with my allotted time. The question for the reader then becomes: Do I stay onshore or embark on a journey into the unknown sea of life?

Zach Railey, 2008 Olympic silver medalist in sailing

A thought-provoking book that is a delight to read and share with friends.

Chattanooga Times Free Press

Eloquent and sensitive perceptive.

San Antonio Express-News

Both simple and profound.

Mansfield News Journal (OH)

A profoundly simple, beautiful piece of work a must-read.

San Mateo County Times

For Bonnie

Who makes all things possible

by Jeffrey Zaslow

Richard Bode wrote this book as an attempt to make good on a promise never kept. He had vowed when he was younger to teach his two sons and two daughters to sail, to help them understand that to sail a boat is to negotiate a life. He never followed through.

I try to forgive myself, but I cant, he wrote in Chapter One.

And yet, nearly twenty years after the release of this profound and heart-stirring book, its clear that he accomplished his goal in magnificent ways. His adult children now speak passionately about how this book has shaped them, how the water and the wind call out to them, how their fathers voice and all his lessons remain in their heads.

And most beautiful of all: Many thousands of people, those who sail and those who do not, those who harbor their own regrets and those who seek new directions in their livesthey, too, have embraced Ricks story as their own. First You Have to Row a Little Boat has become one of the literary worlds classic word-of-mouth titles, an inspirational gem that year after year is discovered by new readers who then pass it on to those they love.

Born in 1928, Rick had always wanted to be an author but spent most of his career as a PR man and ghostwriter for business executives. He made a good living, but there was a feeling of emptiness, too. As he put it: It is a strange and sad commentary that a man enters adult life wanting to be a poet and ends up in public relations.

He was a loving father, but often seemed distracted. He was so caught up in his own thoughts that he missed a lot of conversations, recalls his son, Jeff, now fifty-seven years old. We were always repeating ourselves, saying, Dad, pay attention!

At the same time, Rick had this inviting innocence about him. My dad had a delight in life, says his daughter, Katie, forty-seven. Youd ask him, Dad, do you want to get a root beer float? and hed get excited like a little kid. Katie speaks of her dads love of languagehe reveled in teaching her punctuation at an early ageand how enthralled he was by the natural world. Hed say, Hey Katie, be really quiet, come slowly. Wed tiptoe over and watch a bird in the birdfeeder outside our kitchen window.

But Ricks exuberance sometimes masked a sadness rooted in both his pasthe was orphaned at a young ageand his present. He was very aware of all he hadnt done with his life. By the time he reached his early sixties, he was divorced and felt unfulfilled at work. He had begun dating writer Bonnie Remsberg in 1985, and though they soon fell in love, they decided not to marry.