Karen rowed for what the venerable American shell builder George Pocock called `the symphony of motion. ' As … - Stefan Kieszling

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Judy Blume excels at describing how it feels to be invisible. So how poetic is it that Blume herself is suddenly everywhere?

Stefan Kieszling

Karen rowed for what the venerable American shell builder George Pocock called `the symphony of motion. ' As dawn breaks over the river, the shell is lifted from its rack out into the morning. On another rack the oars hang ready to be greased and slipped into the locks. Then, awakened to the river and the feel of the oars, the oarsmen blend in fulfillment of the shell. The symphony is not of competition. It is the synchronous motion over water, the harmonic flexing of wood and muscle, where each piece of equipment and every oarsman is both essential to, and the limit of motion itself.

Awakened, Limit, Morning, Rivers, Shell, Symphony

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I climbed on the rowing ergometer, and started to pull - losing myself in the rhythm of sweat and pain.

Ergometer, Losing, Pain, Pull, Sweat

That morning each of us found a breaking point. Not only a physical barrier, but a point where determination, stamina and duty clashed and were overcome not so much by pain but by absurdity.

Determination, Duty, Found, Morning, Pain, Stamina

As a competitor, winner or loser, one crosses the line into limbo. The adrenaline is gone, the anticipation is gone. The verdict is either comforting or devestating but it neithers returns the exhilaration of the race nor helps directly to win the next. Maybe all that matters is that there is a next.

Comforting, Directly, Exhilaration, Race, Verdict, Winning

For two months after Christmas vacation we limped around campus with muscles too tigh and sore to walk properly, yet we had no good idea of our goal. Without knowing what a real race was like, I couldn't judge whether it was worth all the preparation, but having put in so much time already, how could we back out? Quite a few Freshman did manage to back out. After Christmas several, when freed from faily practice, decided that they liked not feeling tired all the time. Most of them vanished without a word.

Already, Muscles, Quite, Real, Tired, Vacation

Once one is beyond a certain level of commitment to the sport, life begins to seem an allegory of rowing rather than rowing an allegory of life.

Allegory, Certain, Commitment, Levels, Life, Sports