Friend is a word...
7/20/2009 8:16:55 PM
July 20, 2009
It's no secret that I've traveled many a long and often weary mile in this journey with coonhounds that officially began more the thirty years ago. In fact it was in the year 1978, thirty-one years ago that I became a field rep for a coonhound registry.
No matter the distance traveled to an event or how weary I may be at the time, I always count on seeing a friend wherever I go. My friends know who they are so I won't embarrass them or me by naming names and citing reasons why. Let's just say I've been thinking about how much my friends mean to me and when I read the following words in the closing chapter of a great little book I just finished for the second time, I thought about you. Here you go.
Friend is a word…
that I don’t throw around
Though it’s used and abused, I still like the sound.
I save it for people who’ve done right by me
And I know I can count on if ever need be.
Some of my friends drive big limousines
Own ranches and banks and visit with queens.
And some of my friends are up to their neck
In overdue notes and can’t write a check.
They’re singers or ropers or writers of prose
And others, God bless ‘em, can’t blow their own nose!
I guess bein’ friends don’t have nothin’ to do
With talent or money or knowin’ who’s who.
It’s a comf’terbul feelin’ when you don’t have to care
‘Bout choosin’ your words or bein’ quite fair
‘Cause friends’ll just listen and let go on by
Those words you don’t mean and not bat an eye.
It makes a friend happy to see your success.
They’re proud of yer good side and forgive all the rest
And that ain’t so easy, all of the time
Sometimes I get crazy and seem to go blind!
Yer friends just might have to take you on home
Or remind you sometime that you’re not alone.
Or ever so gently pull you back to the ground
When you think you can fly with no one around.
A hug or a shake, whichever seems right
Is the high point of givin’, I’ll tell ya tonight.
All worldly riches and tributes of men
Can’t hold a candle to the worth of a friend.
By Baxter Black
Hey Cowboy, Wanna Get Lucky?
Penguin Books
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