Best Of Humungus
What Men Don’t Say To Each Other
The classic western ‘Lonesome Dove’ is full of action, adventure — and tenderness
A few months ago, one of my oldest friends asked me for a book recommendation, and I told him to read my favorite of all time, Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer-prize-winning cowboy epic Lonesome Dove.
I told him it was the only book I’d ever read more than once. That it was the first book to make me cry. Oh, and it's action-packed! I was desperate for him to read it, so I texted him this: Lonesome Dove is the Lord of the Rings of Texas. I thought, for sure, that would intrigue him.
He did not read it.
I am fairly certain, however, he will read this article because he always reads what I write. He proudly posts my articles on social media like he’s family. And I guess he is: nineteen years ago when I was drunk and lost and scared, he shocked me by asking if I’d be his newborn daughter’s godfather. He had sobered up long before I did, and, for a time, he had more faith in me than I had in myself.
Men aren’t supposed to say “I love you” to each other unless they’re falling down drunk. That sentiment is reserved for romance and family. But platonic relationships between men are as meaningful as either of those.
