What a rowing team from the University of Washington in the 1930s can teach Utahns today.
“The Boys in the Boat” is a movie in theaters on Christmas Day based on the book by Daniel Brown, about a University of Washington rowing team that competed during the Great Depression and in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The story illustrates the power of unity and is relevant to problems we currently face in Utah.
The book brilliantly describes the sport of rowing, which has been called “the most difficult team sport.” “Good crews are good blends of personalities and strengths,” who must learn to work as a “single whole, unified, in motion.” When a crew becomes one, the boat can swing or rise in the water, achieving an ultra-efficient competitive advantage.
“No other sport demands and rewards the complete abandonment of the self the way that rowing does.” Yet, the boys had every reason to turn inward to their own problems. They lived in the Great Depression, which hit all of them hard. They had no money and sometimes no food. Their circumstances were bleak.
As residents of Utah, we are in the same figurative boat. We face significant problems too, including water shortages, homelessness and unaffordable housing, educational disparity, poor air quality, mental health and suicide, gender and racial inequality, inflation, transportation issues, and domestic and foreign conflicts of various natures.
The boys in the boat were willing to row for each other, despite their circumstances, as one. We too can rise above our challenges to the degree that we are willing to be unified by our common objectives, really listen to and try to understand each other, and live for one another, as one.
John Edwards, Provo
