A CALL TO ROW
by Christy Driehaus

Maybe you’ve seen them early in the morning, or maybe gliding into the night as it falls. Maybe you’ve thought to yourself how beautiful and graceful it looks, or maybe you’ve thought those people are crazy! And maybe they are, but I’m willing to bet there is some part of you that wonders just what the allure is, and some part of you that wonders just what it would feel like to travel along the glassy mirror surface of the water, just the sound of the oars and your own concentration. Ah the thrill of it! Rowing sweep as part of a two, four or eight person boat can be the ultimate team sport. I would contend that in the true definition of team, it may be more of a team than you desire. You are in a small boat, a narrow thing with sliding seats and really long oars, a shell, and so are eight or four other people (don’t ever forget the coxswain!) and you all together make the boat move. Or not. Your actions are so completely connected to everyone else’s that one person out of synch, one little bobble to the side and the whole boat feels it. You do not row the boat yourself but all the rowers and the coxswain together row the boat. When a boat clicks, and you will know this when it happens, when it swings together the total joy becomes much more than the sum of its parts, and indeed the boat rows you. It is exquisite. It is also like anything that is special. It does not come right away, or easy, or without a lot of sweat and tears and laughs. That would explain the people you may have seen way early before even the birds are awake and who finish their workout just as the sun rises for the day. That small bit of something beyond yourself makes all other concerns, such as, “why am I getting up so darn early”, and, “I didn’t know this would hurt so much” become very dim in the light of “wow! I didn’t know this would feel so good and in so many ways”. My introduction to rowing was with one of those common questions - when my older sister, in her sophomore year of high school said “ I’m going to row”. I said “ What?” as in, what is that? and Why? And row she did, and get up early she did and race every weekend of the spring she did. And make it look easy she did! It looked so easy and graceful. And when two of my best friends began rowing the next year I was tortured with lunch hours filled with gibberish about seats and crabs and rates. I hated it! And when they said to me, “You are going to row next year”, I said, “I am not!”. But row the next year I did. Indeed. And here it is, oh about 16 years later and even if I am not constantly a part of a rowing team, I will probably always consider myself a rower. Once hooked you will never be the same. Sounds pretty corny, I know, but what rowing gave me in my formative years was a real sense of grounding amid the winds and rains of the hurricane of adolescence. It gave me a place to stand in the new world of college, and through the years of my life since, it has always been there as a reference point. The really neat thing about rowing is that whenever you get to know it, it will always have wonderful lessons for you wherever you are in life. It’s kind of like the Brady Bunch. You can always relate whatever is going on back to it. There are no restrictions for rowing; it accommodates all ages, goals and abilities. If you want something that will challenge you beyond what you thought, there it is. If you want something to relax you that you can do on your own, there it is. If you want to switch between the two, there it is again. If the idea of being in boat with a bunch of other people sounds like it’s not your thing, then rowing is also definitely for you. Sculling, rowing with two oars, is most often done alone - you, the shell, your oars. It can be intensely challenging and it can be a beautiful time of solitude and meditation. It can be everything in-between. Rowing, like many things, can be a metaphor for life. It will give you back ten-fold what you give it. Indeed it will.

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