FOLLOW US

We’ve got too many holes in our boat and too many different hands pulling the oars. We’re circling in the water. All it takes is a glance at the news to know that we’re headed in the wrong direction.

I recently heard about a football coach from the University of Minnesota who coined the phrase ‘Row the Boat.’ Let’s take a look at what that means and how it applies to our country.

What Row the Boat Means

The concept was created by P.J. Fleck and revolves around the simple concept that one should never give up. We’re all rowing this boat together. How does a boat work?

1. You need an Oar – this is the energy that you bring to your cause, relationships, work and life. This is what will move our boat. We need the right energy, and we need to share the same type of energy to move forward together.
2. Then you need the Boat – this is the sacrifice we must make to move forward. We have to sacrifice to get what we have never had as a country, even if it means sacrificing our opinion.
3. Finally, we must have a Compass – we need to travel in the right direction as one, and surround ourselves with positivity, rather than negativity.

If we focus on the present and rowing our boat as a country, together, we will ultimately achieve great goals and a better quality of life for all Americans. But how do we do that?

How We Could Row the Boat

As Americans, we have a lot of positive attributes. We have the most generous people in the world, and as a country, we’re willing to help those in need.

I grew up in New York, and have lived in Virginia and Los Angeles, and have seen the most generous people. The media, Hollywood, and those in the political sphere seem determined to set the country in the wrong direction. They could take a leaf out of P.J. Fleck’s book and Row the Boat.

The media is in part responsible for the violence today. Movies filled with violence and hate are shown constantly, and the news doesn’t report on the good, wholesome occurrences in communities, but gravitates toward negativities. Lies and fake news spreads on the internet. People no longer need sources to preach hate from their technological pulpits.

Congress is focused on their own special interest. They don’t work together. If everyone rows the boat in the same direction, we’d move forward and all benefit. We need to focus our energy in the same direction. That we need to go in the same direction. This applies to congress and our leaders.

The recent upheaval over the removal of Confederate statues is a prime example. There are many things that bring us together, but this conflict shows the issues which are used to get us rowing in different directions. And what happens when two people row in different directions in the same boat? It turns in circles and goes nowhere.