A Man

in a
Boat
Brought to you by
The Good Men Project

“Looking at my
grandfather, I’m
reminded of how
much of a suc-
cessful life is
about swimming
with the cur-
rent, wherever
that takes you.”

Written by:
Tom Matlack
www.GoodMenProject.com
 A black-and-white image. It had been tucked away in an album for years
before I snuck it out of our family camp on an island in a lake in Maine.
“Megunticook” is the name of the venture capital firm I started and ran for
a decade before shutting our doors last week. It’s also the name of that lake
in Camden. When I first started Megunticook Management, a secretary blew
up the image to an 8 x 10 and put it in a silver frame. I’ve brought the pic-
ture with me as we moved offices over the years. Saturday morning, a truck
delivered boxes of files to my home office—a garret in the third-floor corner
of our home in Brookline, Massachusetts—and the picture was the first thing
I unpacked.

The man in the picture is wearing a fedora, dress slacks, and a collared windbreaker. It’s my grandfather, just
after the Second World War, when he bought the postage-stamp-sized property for a few thousand dollars.
His legs are spread, left foot forward, and knees bent, almost in a sprinter’s stance. His right arm is caught in
motion as if he were trying to propel the wooden boat forward. A thicket of branches graze the water behind
him and jagged rocks protrude from the surface in front of him. The bow of the boat is caught on a sand spit.
Grandfather Bob’s body is lit up in bright sunshine but his face is stuck in the shadow of his hat. In my mind’s
eye, I can just make out the look of intense concentration as he drops his head slightly to stare at that bow.

What he might do if he got the boat free of dry land, I don’t know. There are no oars in the craft. But it doesn’t
much matter, since he isn’t going anywhere.

Perhaps the reason I have carried this picture around is to continually ask myself how much different I am than
my grandfather. While I don’t know the exact date of the picture, I think the man in the boat is roughly the
same age I am now (46).

Robert Matlack was first involved in the paint industry at George D. Wetherill & Co. in Moorestown, New Jer-
sey, and then as the president of the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology. He had three kids, lived
in a large house, and didn’t seem to have much use for people. He spent a lot of time in his study by himself,
reading the paper, watching sports, and smoking his pipe. He also smoked cigarettes and drank Scotch. My
sense, though I could be wrong, was that he was fighting his demons and that his study was where he went to
soothe himself. My most vivid memories of him as a small boy were of him yelling at my grandmother when
she interrupted his peace and quiet.

Grandpa lived longer than he probably should have, given all the drinking and smoking. He refused to go to the
doctor, I imagine because he knew the news wouldn’t be good, and he died of lung cancer at age 79 in 1990. In
my 30s, I judged my grandfather harshly; I judged myself harshly, too. I had helped run a big media company,
drank too much, and found myself shattered. I had had two kids whom I barely knew; I had made the mistake
of infidelity. When I was younger, I was told that my grandfather had once become infatuated with a secretary,
but stayed with my grandmother to the very end, despite what could best be described as a challenging mar-
riage.

Since my grandfather bought that little piece of land in Camden, Maine, his three sons, nine grandchildren, and
gaggle of great-grandchildren have all grown deeply attached to the area. One son moved to Portland and then
retired to Owl’s Head, the next town over. A grandson went to the Maine Maritime Academy to become a ship
captain and built a house nearby. Another grandson moved into downtown Camden. A couple of years ago, my
parents moved to within a few miles of the island.

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Grandfather left the property to the nine grandchildren, of which I
am one, in a trust that mandates that if we ever can’t reach consen-
sus (my family is Quaker), the property goes to the State of Maine.
Every other year, we get together as an extended family, some 40
strong now, to discuss the upkeep of the island in Maine. It’s not
about the water glasses or the need for a new box spring, but about
renewing the human connections that bond all of us together as
descendants of the man in the boat.

In the years since I first put that picture on my desk, my perspec-

tive on my grandfather has changed. At first, I thought, I would do
better and be better than him. I’d get sober and dedicate myself
to being a fully present father. I’d get out of my bad marriage and
dedicate myself to a new one. I’d write and think about being a
good man.

But now I am staring at that picture, the determined look on my grandfather’s face as he tried to get that flat-
bottomed boat off that sand bar and wondering: To what extent have I outrun my genetic heritage?

I still suffer from a variety of forms of obsessive behavior. My study is my sanctuary. I joke that I don’t like
people. I do hope that I have a substantive relationship with my now three kids and am a good husband, but
that is a day-to-day challenge. The demons are still there, as is the desire to control the uncontrollable.

A friend once said that he feels like a kid in the back seat of a car with a plastic steering wheel, thinking that
he is driving, when in actuality all he is turning is a toy wheel while the world zooms by. Looking at my grand-
father, I’m reminded of how much of a successful life is about swimming with the current, wherever that takes
you. I still have a bad habit of thrashing upstream, tiring myself out before I finally let go and float downstream.

Gratitude also is something I try to remember. I am lucky to be sober, to have three healthy kids, a loving wife,
and good health. Like my grandfather, too often I take all that for granted, as if those are just the things I am
owed by the universe, and snarl at those I care about most when they come to my study door to ask me for
help with even the most mundane household task.

None of this is meant to diminish the importance of the question, discussed daily at the Good Men Project
Magazine among men and women I respect, and which I ask myself in the dark of night: What does it mean to
be a good man? I am admitting here, for my grandfather’s sake, that the answer is not as straightforward as I’d
once imagined.

It requires admitting what I don’t know, can’t change, and likely never will.

We’re all men standing in a boat, trying in vain to slip it off a sand bar. None of us can know today the impact
of the simplest of actions 50 years in the future, when our grandchildren stare at a picture and wonder how it
was for us to try to be good.

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 About Tom Matlack
Tom Matlack is just foolish enough to believe he is
a decent man. He has a 16-year-old daughter and
14- and 5-year-old sons. His wife, Elena, is the love
of his life.

www.GoodMenProject.com
Tom Matlack, together with James
Houghton and Larry Bean, published an
anthology of stories about defining mo-
ments in men’s lives — The Good Men
Project: Real Stories from the Front Lines of Modern Buy the book here!
Manhood. It was how the The Good Men Project first
began. Want to buy the book? Click here. Want to learn
more? Here you go.

Photo Credit to GimmeFood :) on Flickr

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