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Posted on May 4, 2001

Runners wanted

Whether you last ran today at lunch or decades ago in gym class, Team Union wants you.

The 2001 J.P. Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge is Thursday, May 24, at 6:25 p.m. at the Empire State Plaza in Albany. This 3.5-mile road race is one of the largest running events in the Capital Region with athletes _ erstwhile and otherwise _ representing hundreds of local organizations.

The Union team has been a frequent “Top 10” finisher over the years, and consistently ranks among the top local educational institutions. More importantly, however, this event has been a great way to socialize with colleagues (and some Union people you may not know) to represent the College in a fun, low-key race followed by a “team banquet.” (We'll hit a pizza joint on the way home.)

Team Union welcomes all abilities, from walker to world class. The primary goal is to have a large number of employees (only full-timers are eligible) representing the College.

The race is run through Albany's Washington Park over the same course as the famous Freihoffer's Run for Women (plus .4 miles), to be held on Saturday, June 2.

Entry fee is $14. Applications are due May 9.

For more information, e-mail of call Charlie Casey, ext. 6090.

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Odds & Ends

Posted on May 3, 2001

Under the category of “Recognizing the Potential”…

One of the awards given by the Athletic Department every year is the Terry Lynch-Jackie Havercamp Memorial Award which is presented annually to the freshman female athlete who has shown desire, dedication, sportsmanship, and inspirational leadership on the field of competition as well as in her daily life.
For the first time in the 21-year history of the award, each class was represented by someone who previously won the Lynch-Havercamp Memorial.

Melissa Matusewicz (Florence, MA/Northampton), who won the award in 1998, was named the Bob Ridings Award winner this year as Union's “Outstanding Senior Female Athlete.” Yvonne Turchetti (Red Hook, NY/Red Hook), who was the 1999 recipient, won the ECAC Medal as this year's “Outstanding Junior Female Athlete” and Jill Ring (Brewster, MA/Nauset Regional), who captured the award last year, was this year's “Outstanding Sophomore Female Athlete” as voted by the athletic department.

This 2001 recipient of the Terry Lynch-Jackie Havercamp Memorial Award was Victoria Kuzman (Guilderland, NY/Guilderland), who started at midfield for the UCAA and NYSWCAA champion soccer team and saw action at guard for the basketball team, which set numerous records during its 18-9 ECAC Upstate New York playoff campaign…

Freshman Jim Griglun (Southington, CT/Southington), who plays both third and first for the baseball team, was named the UCAA's “Rookie of the Week” for the second consecutive week and the third time this season. Last week he was 7-for-13 (.538) with four rbi and four runs scored. A home run and double were included in his seven hits. Griglun finished second in the UCAA with his .424 batting average and second with his 30 rbi…Leading the league was senior outfielder Jay Warzala (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro), who batted .448. Warzala also led the cricuit with his 33 rbis…The Dutchmen were the UCAA's second-best hitting team with an average of .343… Sophomore pitcher Chris Hartnett (Albany, NY/Albany Academy) led the circuit with his 48 strikeouts.

Junior Sarah Johnston (Troy, NY/Troy) was named the UCAA's “Pitcher of the Week” for the third time this season. Johnston did not give up an earned run in 22 innings last week while posting a 3-0 record. She allowed just 11 hits with 12 strikeouts and four walks. Johnston finished the year allowing just three earned runs in 76.2 innings, an earned run average of 0.27. Sophomore outfielder Jill Ring (Brewster, MA/Nauset Regional) was the UCAA's “Hitter of the Week” after batting .480 (12 for 25) with five rbi and five runs scored. Included among her hits were two doubles and a home run. Ring finished first in the league with her 23 rbis and tied for second with her three home runs. Ring's three triples left her third among UCAA hitters while her five doubles was sixth. Union led the UCAA in team fielding (.956) and earned run average (1.90).

Union had the UCAA's top goaltenders among the men's and women's lacrosse leagues. Junior Pat Forrest (Topsfield,MA/Gov. Dummer) led the league in save percentage (65.1) for the third consecutive season while freshman Elizabeth Soto's (Greenwich, CT/Loomis Chaffee) 63.5 topped the women's league.

Sophomore Anil Gupta (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville East), who went 3-0 in the UCAA championships out of the No. 1 singles position, was named the league's “Player of the Year” and was voted to the All-Singles Team. Gupta, who was 13-3 this spring and 21-4 overall (including last fall), is 30-5 out of the No. 1 position in his two years at Union. He is the first Dutchman ever to be ranked nationally.

Seniors Scott Dutcher (Wellesley, MA/Wellseley) and Nick Balascio (Madison, NJ/Madison) both topped the Century mark during their outstanding four-year lacrosse careers. Dutcher currently ranks fourth on the all-time scoring list with 97 goals and 144 points while Balascio ranks 10th with 76 goals and 111 points…Junior Kurt Kimball (Fulton, NY/Bodley), who led the Dutchmen this year with 59 points, will enter his senior campaign eighth on the all-time scoring chart with 60 goals and 127 points.

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Dutchwomen capture first-ever NYSWCAA softball championship

Posted on May 3, 2001

The softball team won the program's first-ever New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic Association (NYSWCAA) championship last weekend in dramatic fashion, winning three straight games on Sunday, including two in extra innings, to take the title. For Union's seniors, the title represents the final page of their record-setting careers, and for those players who will return to defend the state title next season, it serves as a building block for future accomplishments.

The Dutchwomen will graduate three seniors who led the team to its third consecutive 20-win season and were the cornerstone of the Dutchwomen's success this year. They finish their Union careers with a record of 86-50-1 (.631), which is the best four-year record in the program's 26-year history. Collectively they were a part of Union's 26-11 (.735) finish in 1999 which set the standard for most wins in a season and best single-season winning percentage, and individually they each left indelible marks on Union's record books.

Senior co-captain Julie Cardettino (Niskayuna, NY/Niskayuna) started at third base in all 137 games of her career. Cardettino became the Dutchwomen's all-time hits leader with a single in the final game against St. John Fisher on Sunday. The single was her 40th hit of the season and the 135th hit of her career. Taryn Samol set the previous mark of 134 career hits from 1996-1999. Cardettino's 40 hits this season puts her in eighth place in the record books for hits in a
season, just one hit shy of her career-high 41 hits in 1999. She was named the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association and the Eastern College Athletic Conference “Hitter of the Week” after a 13 of 24 (.542) clip that included six runs scored and six RBI's during the team's spring training trip to Ft. Myers, and finished the season with a team-leading .392 batting average. Cardettino was the team Most Valuable Player and the UCAA “Player of the Year” in 1999 after leading the team in batting with a .402 average. In addition, Cardettino finishes her stellar four-year career with 69 runs scored (tied-7th) and 52 runs batted in (9th). The NYSWCAA softball title is the third state title she has won while at Union. Cardettino was a two-time captain of the women's soccer team, which won back-to-back championships in 1999 and 2000.

APRYLE PICKERING
The Dutchwomen's career wins leader

Senior hurler and co-captain Apryle Pickering (Brandon, VT/Otter Valley Union) became Union's all-time leader in wins when she picked up the 33rd victory of her career with a complete-game win over Rochester. The biggest win of Pickering's career came in the final game of the NYSWCAA tournament when she was on the mound for the win over St. John Fisher that give Union the state title, and gave her the 35th victory of her career.

Pickering concludes her career with a final record of 35-21-1 which puts her in fourth place with a .623 winning percentage. With 174 strikeouts in 377.2 innings on the mound, Pickering finishes in second place for both innings pitched and career strikeouts. Pickering was Union's Most Valuable Player following a 12-7 performance with 50 strikeouts and a 1.59 ERA in 1998. In addition, she was a UCAA second team selection in 1999 after posting an 8-5-1 record and a 1.17 ERA.

Senior pitcher Meghan Crowley (Leominster, MA/Nashoba Regional) finishes her four-year career as Union's all-time leader in strikeouts with 236 and shutouts with 10. Crowley finished her career with a record of 29-21, three saves and is sixth in Union's record books with a .592 winning percentage. In addition, she is third in wins with 29 and fourth in innings pitched with 338. Crowley went 2-0 in the state tournament, scattering 10 hits in fifteen innings against Utica and RIT and finished the 2001 season with an 8-2 record, one save, 39 strikeouts and a 2.10 ERA. In 1999 Crowley finished with a 10-4 record, with one save, 54 strikeouts and a 2.06 ERA.

This was the third straight season that Union was invited to participate in the NYSWCAA tournament, but was the first time in that three-year period that the Dutchwomen were able to pick up a victory in the first round. Union earned the fourth seed in the draw and was therefore able to host fifth-seeded Utica College in the opening round of the tournament. The Dutchwomen were able to avenge last year's first round loss to Utica, and a doubleheader loss earlier in the season, by defeating the visiting Pioneers by a score of 5-0.

Sophomore Jill Ring is the all-time leader in triples with 10.

Sophomore Jill Ring (Brewster, MA/Nauset Regional) opened up a five-run second inning against Utica by leading off with her team-high fourth homerun of the season. Freshman catcher Lindsay Miarmi (Aberdeen, NJ/Mattawan Regional), junior outfielder Melinda Colon (Rutherford, NJ/Rutherford) and Cardettino each knocked in a run for the Dutchwomen in that inning. That would be all the offense that Union would need as Crowley allowed just three hits while striking out three on the way to her fourth shutout of the season.

The top four seeds in the draw advanced to Saturday and Sunday's double-elimination portion of the tournament, which was hosted by St. Lawrence. Saturday saw the Dutchwomen post a 1-1 mark, winning the opener against first-seed RIT, 1-0 in eight innings, before falling to second-seed St. John Fisher, 3-2.

RIT came into the tournament boasting a 31-5 record and a team batting average of .343, but the Tigers were shut down by the pitching of junior Sarah Johnston (Troy, NY/Troy). Johnston, who went into the game with a 0.34 ERA, having allowed just three earned runs all year, held top-seeded RIT to just three hits while striking out eight. The only major jam of the game came in the top of the second inning when RIT's lead off batter hit a triple. The batter was stranded at third however as Johnston struck out the next three Tigers who stepped to the plate.

The game was scoreless through seven innings, so the international tiebreaker rule was put into effect at the top of the eighth inning. In that situation, the team a bat starts the inning with a runner on second base. Cardettino made a great play in the field to cut down RIT's potential go-ahead run at the plate and keep the game scoreless going into the bottom of the eighth.

Sophomore Shanna O'Brien brought home junior Audrey Brennan for the winning RBI against RIT.

Junior shortstop Audrey Brennan (Cooperstown, NY/Cooperstown) started on second for the Dutchwomen and was bunted to third by Miarmi. Sophomore second baseman Shanna O'Brien (Wyantskill, NY/Catholic Central) picked up the game-winning RBI by dropping a perfect squeeze bunt to plate Brennan, and give Union the 1-0 victory.

The Dutchwomen's next opponent was second-seed St. John Fisher, a winner over St. Lawrence earlier in the day. The Cardinals broke Union's 30-inning shutout streak by scoring twice in the top of the first inning. Union got a run back in the bottom of the inning when Ring singled home sophomore Erin Lefkowitz (Amherst, NH/Southegan), and then tied the game in the second when junior outfielder Marisa Jacques (Troy, NY/Catholic Central) hit a single to left to score O'Brien. St. John Fisher scored what proved to be the game-winning run in the top of the fifth by taking advantage of two singles and an error. The Dutchwomen loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth and one out, but came up empty after a ground out and a strikeout canceled the threat. Despite picking up the 3-2 loss, Pickering allowed only one earned run and finished with four strikeouts.

The Dutchwomen woke up on Sunday morning, knowing that they had to win three-straight games if they were to win their first-ever state title, and they more than rose to the occasion. In order to advance to meet St, John Fisher in the championship game, Union needed to get past RIT once again. The Dutchwomen did just that, defeating top-seeded RIT in extra innings for the second time in two days, winning by a final score of 3-2.

Union posted a run in the top of the first inning when Lefkowitz singled and Ring drove her home with a two-out double. RIT struck back with two runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 2-1 lead, and that is how the score remained until the top of the sixth when Brennan singled in Ring to tie the game 2-2. There was no score in the seventh so Colon was placed on second to start the top of the eighth inning. She was able to advance to third on a wild pitch and then scored what proved to be the game-winner when Lefkowitz grounded out to second base. Union eliminated the RIT runner in the bottom of the eighth when Miarmi gunned her at third as she was trying to steal. Two fly balls ended the RIT threat and gave Union the 3-2 victory and send the Dutchwomen to the championship.

Freshman Lindsay Miarmi played 32 games behind the plate this season.

Due to the double-elimination format, Union needed to pick up twp straight wins over undefeated St. John Fisher to take the title. The first game against the Cardinals got off to a rough start as they took a 1-0 lead on one hit and two errors in the top of the third but Union tied it up in the bottom of the fourth. Lefkowitz doubled to lead off the inning, Cardettino moved her to third, and then a Ring single scored Lefkowitz to tie the game at 1-1. St. John Fisher immediately retook the lead, scoring two runs on two hits and an error to take a 3-1 lead.

Still down 3-1 going into the bottom of the sixth, the Dutchwomen exploded for four runs to take a 5-3 lead. Ring got the rally going with a single and then advanced to second when junior first baseman Meredith Chace (Westwood, MA/Westwood) got on base as the result of an error by the shortstop. A wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third before a single by Brennan drove in Ring. Freshman Amy Payeur (Berlin, MA), who was put into pinch run for Chace, scored on a wild pitch. Miarmi walked and freshman Kirin Liquori (Rexford, NY/Niskayuna) was put in as a pinch runner.

Juniors Meredith Chace and Audrey Brennan celebrate a run scored against SJF.

O'Brien singled to drive in Brennan and then a Jacques sacrifice bunt advanced Liquori and O'Brien to second and third respectively. Colon grounded out to second to plate O'Brien for the Dutchwomen's fourth run of the inning. Three St. John Fisher groundouts in the bottom of the seventh gave Union the 5-3 win and set the stage for one winner-take-all game against the Cardinals for the championship. Johnston earned her second victory in as many days with the win. In 15 innings she allowed eight hits, no earned runs and finished with nine strikeouts.

Pickering got the start in the final game and picked up the biggest win of her career. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth when Union put two runs up on the board. Chace led off the inning and got to first on an error by the shortstop. Ring singled to move Chace over to second before a Cardettino single loaded the bases. Payeur was put in to pinch run for Chace at third and O'Brien walked to bring in Payeur for Union's first run. Miarmi then singled in Ring for the second run of the inning.

Things got dicey for the Dutchwomen in the top of the seventh. Union entered that inning sitting on a 2-0 cushion, just three outs away from the title, but the Cardinals had other plans. They scored two runs on two hits and an error in the bottom of the seventh to tie it at 2-2. Union could not generate any offense in the bottom of the seventh thereby sending the game into extra innings once again. The Dutchwomen held St. John Fisher scoreless in the top of the eighth to set the stage for victory.

Liquori started the inning on second base in place of Chace and advanced to third on a passed ball before Ring stepped up to the plate ant hit a single to drive in the winning run and give Union its first-ever NYSWCAA softball championship. The Dutchwomen reached the finals in 1990 but suffered a 5-2 loss to Brockport. Cardettino, Lefkowitz, Ring and Johnston represented the Dutchwomen on the All-Tournament team, with Johnston garnering the tournament's Most Valuable Player honors.

On a more disappointing note, despite two victories against both RIT and St. John Fisher en route to the title, the Dutchwomen were denied a bid into the upcoming NCAA tournament. Receiving an invitation was an afterthought going into the weekend, but Union's performance placed them in the running for an at-large bid. Instead, RIT and St. John Fisher were both invited to the NCAA tournament, as was Oneonta, a program Union was able to earn a split against during the regular season. Despite a 5-2 record against NCAA-selected teams, the Dutchwomen were denied an NCAA bid, effectively ending their season.

Even the NCAA slight cannot diminish the magnitude of what Union was able to accomplish this year, including the outstanding seasons put together by some of Union's underclassman.

Johnston was not only the NYSWCAA tournament Most Valuable Player, she was the UCAA “Pitcher of the Week” three times during the season, and the ECAC “Pitcher of the Week” once. In 76.2 innings on the mound, Johnston scattered 40 hits and allowed just three earned runs. She finished the season with an 8-4 record, a team-leading 40 strikeouts and a tremendous 0.27 ERA. Johnston did not allow an earned run in 22 innings of work, beating Hamilton 2-0, RIT, 1-0 in eight innings, and St. John Fisher, 5-3. She gave up a total of 11 hits in those three games, striking out 12 while allowing just four walks. Johnston boasts a three-year record of 21-8 for a .724 winning percentage which is tops on the career winning percentage charts.

Meredith Chace

Chace finished second on the team in batting with a .300 average and RBI's with 18, including a team- leading nine doubles in her first full-season as the team's first baseman. After three years, Chace is second in base-hits with 26, tied for fifth in career doubles with 16, tied for third with eight triples, and tied for 17th with 41 RBI's.

Ring, the starting centerfielder, finished just behind Chace with a .299 batting average, but led the team with a .551 slugging percentage. Fifteen of her 32 hits this season were for extra bases as she finished the season with seven doubles, a team-leading four triples, and a team-leading four homeruns. Ring finished the season with a team-leading 29 RBI's and 21 runs scored and was named the UCAA “Hitter of the Week.” She now has 51 RBI's and 43 runs batted in during her career, good for ninth and 19th on the charts respectively. Ring's career totals include 29 extra-base hits (tied for third), 13 doubles (ninth), six homeruns (third), and 66 hits (17th). In addition, she has 10 career triples, which places her on the top of that chart after just two years in a Union uniform.

Brennan, who missed most of last season with a broken hand, was the team's starting shortstop, finishing fourth on the team's batting charts with a .286 batting average. She has 62 career RBI's, which is has her tied-for 14th on that chart. Miarmi, who stepped up as the catcher this season, was a force both behind and at the plate. In her first year at catcher, Miarmi led the team with a .992 fielding average. She finished the season with a .262 batting average to round out the top five on the team's batting charts.

O'Brien, the team's starting second baseman, had another outstanding year both in the field and at the plate for the Dutchwomen. She finished the season with a .247 batting average, with 12 RBI's and 20 runs scored. Colon hit .231 this year, and finished second on the team in stolen bases, with four. She now has 22 in her career, good for a seventh place tie on the charts. Jacques finished the season with a .214 batting average with seven RBI's and six runs scored.

Lefkowitz came up big for the Dutchwomen in the state tournament, particularly during Sunday's three gamed. She made several crucial catches in the outfield, including five in the second win over RIT. Lefkowitz finished the season with five hits, one RBI, five runs scored, a team-leading six stolen bases and a .125 batting average, but three of those five hits came in the state tournament. In addition she added three runs scored and an RBI to the Union offensive attack. Those efforts led to her place on the all-tournament team.

Freshman Kristin Bonomo (Shokan, NY/Onteora) finished the season batting .200 and was named the UCAA “Rookie of the Week” after going four for eight and knocking in the winning run against Rochester.

Freshman Liquori and Payeur finished the season with .185 and .118 averages respectively. Liquori, and outfielder contributed five RBI's and eight runs scored to Union's attack this season. Payeur had three RBI's and seven runs scored during her rookie season.

Although the Dutchwomen will miss the their three graduating seniors, they will be more than equipped to begin the defense of their state title next season.

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How to Send Us Your News

Posted on May 1, 2001

We welcome class notes from undergraduate and graduate alumni at any time. There are two ways to get your news into the magazine:

— By sending your information directly to us. Our address is Union College magazine, Office of Communications, Union College, Schenectady, N.Y. 12308-3107. If you prefer to send us your news via e-mail, the address is magazine@union.edu.
— By sending news to your class correspondent.

Photographs are welcome and will be returned if they include your name and address on the back. Glossy black and white photographs at least 4 by 5 will reproduce best.

We will publish your news as soon as we can, but the volume of classnotes means that it may take two issues for your item to appear. If you have any questions about this issue in particular, please call (518) 388-6131 and ask to speak to Jill Warner.

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Richard Bode ’50: Seeing the Beauty Along the Way

Posted on May 1, 2001

“If every man and woman were to take the meaning of their life and pursue it passionately, they would alter the social landscape overnight. In fact, that's how lasting revolutions are made – not by the raised arm of the masses, not by the military seizure of power, not by the political coup d'etat, but by individuals asserting who they are one at a time.” – Richard Bode, First You Row a Little Boat

In 1969, Richard Bode walked away from a full-time public relations job and became the freelance writer he'd dreamed of becoming. With his children grown and his marriage ended in divorce, he divested himself of most of his possessions and moved to a cottage on a California beach. He settled in, with just a van, a record player, a typewriter, and a few books and clothes. Of course, he worried about how he was going to survive, as he would write later in Beachcombing at Miramar (a shoebox of $20 bills represent the narrator's total assets).

But Bode felt he had no choice: “I felt as if I was swallowing myself” in a traditional job. “I felt a great need to have my life as one piece.”

Born on Long Island's Great South Bay, Bode learned to sail at twelve from a Long Island charter boat captain. He bought his own small blue sloop while a teenager, and although he hasn't owned a boat since, rich sailing metaphors continue to appear in his writing.

His experiences with the sloop “compelled me to live in the present and avoid too much unhealthy speculation about what might happen at some indefinite point ahead which I couldn't plainly see. For the truth is that I already know as much about my fate as I need to know. The day will come when I will die. So the only matter of consequence before me is what I will do with my allotted time. I can remain on shore, paralyzed with fear, or I can raise my sails and dip and soar in the breeze.”

The seeds of his longing for a simple, authentic life sprouted when Bode was a student at Union. From “King Jack,” a short story that appeared in the March 1949 issue of the The Idol: “All I can remember was a compelling urge to wander away from the life I had spent. I wanted to start anew as if I had been born at the age of eighteen and had stuffed the past into a jar, sealed it, and cast it to the river.”

After earning a B.A. in English in 1950, he worked on a newspaper and in magazine editing and public relations. Completing an M.F.A. in writing from Columbia University, he launched his writing career with articles for the Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping, and many other magazines, as well as speeches for CEOs of major corporations.

In 1969, he left for the beach, and a decade later he published his first book, Blue Sloop at Dawn (Dodd, Mead) – an autobiographical novel about a small boy who loses his parents and finds solace through sailing. In 1992, he won the Excellence in Writing Award of the American Society of Journalists and Authors for his article, “To Climb the Wind,” published in Sail magazine. Word-of-mouth turned his 1995 book, First You Have to Row a Little Boat (Warner Books), into a bestseller. Today, it's in its ninth paperback printing and has gone through several hardcover printings. Twelve foreign-language editions have been published.

“When I was writing Little Boat, I walked on the beach every single day, so I could puzzle out what I was trying to say,” he says. “If your mind is a muddle, and you can go out on the beach and think, that's part of the process, too. Scenes on the beach while I walked — a shard of purple glass, a couple walking — registered in my subconscious, and became material for the next book. They were in my mind like paintings, because I was aware and consciously seeking. I was living what I was writing, and writing what I was living.”

The quest for an authentic life is the subtitle of his 1997 book, Beachcombing at Miramar (Warner Books). The book, currently in its third paperback printing, was a Book-of-the-Month-Club selection and was on Publisher's Weekly bestseller list. The first-person narrative has been translated into German, Swedish, Spanish, Hebrew, and Korean.

How does writing a book change him? “I think when you start a book or chapter, you have an idea what you want to say, but what comes out is often surprising. It's an act of self-discovery.”

Of the writers who have influenced Bode, “There are writers I love but I don't want to imitate – like Dickens and George Bernard Shaw. I don't want to get their music in my head – their styles are too different from mine. But there are other writers – Tolstoy is one – I could read him and sit down and write – his words come out effortlessly and truthfully. Willa Cather and Thoreau too.”

He particularly loves this Thoreau quote from Walden: “It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.”

“Art is close to my heart,” adds Bode. “To paint, you have to really see. And there's a connection between putting words down on paper and seeing what's going on around me.”

Asked if he believes most men and women don't pursue “the meaning of their life,” he says, “I don't want to sound presumptuous, but I think it's true, because of the pace of our lives. The pace keeps people from being more introspective. I think the effect is more pronounced because of technology.”

Does Bode think of himself as a hermit? “No, no. I'm very closely connected with my four children and my grandchildren. I don't live alone. I'm not a partygoer either, but I'm not a hermit.”

Why does he think so many people feel they don't fit in organizations? “We live in a democracy, but people work in organizations and corporations that are not at all democratic – they can't even open the window! The bureaucracy weighs more heavily on them than the government, though it's the government they complain about. People want control over their own lives, but they can't have this in organizations that are bureaucratic. They don't have a choice of boss, and it may be a terrible relationship. They may wake up every morning with dread at having to face that same despot.

“Corporations and organizations need to become more conscious. I think there's a need for a strong connection between leaders and art. If our leaders had an artistic spirit, it would make them better leaders. They wouldn't have to be artists, but appreciate and understand it.”

What's on the horizon for Bode? Currently, he's working on what he'll describe only as “a difficult, challenging book.” But he's taking his own advice: “Everything significant is small and slow,” a line from First You Row a Little Boat. “This was something I originally said to one of my grandchildren, who was asking me to drive faster. People tend to think that driving from Point A to Point B is lost time, and don't see the beauty along the way.”

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