Novelist Gustave Flaubert reached a frustrating impasse while writing Madame Bovary. So, he wrote to a friend about the struggle, hoping it would fix his writer's block: "What a heavy oar the pen is, and what a strong current ideas are to row in!" Commentator Scott Thybony can relate. He, too, spends a lot of time thinking about writing and rivers, the subjects of this month's Canyon Commentary.