The Tao of Friendship

“A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?”

~ Kahlil Gibran

Me and Bob in Alaska!

When I was a small boy, I had a small group of friends and together we’d run wild in the farmer’s fields and get chased out of their orchards when we’d climb their trees and eat their fruit like the feral creatures we wished to be and then we’d wander through the woodlots and build dangerously unstable tree-houses and pretend to be “Indians” living in the wilderness even though our back porches we a few hundred yards away.

And then my parents divorces and we left the little rural neighborhood surrounded by farmer’s fields and woodlots and my dad and I moved away to an apartment where there we adults but no kids and there in that new place - I had no friends. And it pretty much remained that way until I joined the Marines.

When you go though much of your life- friendless… you really understand the value of friends.

In the Marines, I had good friends.

We counted on each other and cared about each other and would fight for each other – literally… through thick and thin. But that was then when I was in my twenties and this is now when I am in my sixties and in between, I became the lone survivor of my little band of Marine Corps brothers. True friendship outlast even death. Dave and Monty and Tony are with me every day – even though they’ve been “gone” for a long time.

Love outlives us.

Now, in this late autumn or early winter or final season of my life, I find myself having some of the dearest friends of my life. How cool is that?

I only wish that my dearest friends… most of them anyway, all live so far away.

I have friends whom I love who are in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. I have friends whom I love who live in Minnesota, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico and well… you get the picture.

My sweet and dear friends Kesley and Aileen. I miss them both.... why must we all live so far away from each other?

And I do love my true friends – both men and women.

I’d fight zombies for them.

Bob White in Patagonia

Bob White is my friend… but for me, he is more like a brother that I never had. For those of you lucky enough to know Bob personally, you know that there just isn’t a more kind, generous, humbly talented human being on earth.

I've admired Bob’s artwork both paintings and drawings since long before we became friends. And now I have stood in his studio on numerous occasions and felt the hallowed feeling of being somewhere holy – a place of creation.

We have traveled from Alaska to Argentina together and points in between but just as importantly, it has been such and honor to have Bob as the illustrator of all four of my books in the “Lyons Press Casting Series” and no in my newest book – A Season in Patagonia: An Angler and Naturalist’s Journey to a New World.”

Any adventure in life is made better by sharing that journey.

I’m not sure what I have to offer Bob.

Not much. Just friendship.

Me and Bob in a cafe in Buenos Aries, Argentina

Yesterday I found an unexpected package waiting for me at my front door. It was flat and rectangular and try as I did I found no discernable indication of its point of origin. So I opened it and found a gift from my friend that nearly brought tears to my eyes.

You see, unknown to me my buddy Bob had taken a photo of me tying on a fly while he and I were fishing together at the base of Volcano Lanin in Northern Patagonia. He knew that spot along the river had quickly become one of my favorite places on Earth. And I knew that the place along the river was one that he had been loving and living with for over forty years – and he was sharing it with me, which made it all the more special. Inside that unexpected package was an original pencil drawing on the moment on the river. It was signed and inscribed and will now be a part of my life, for the rest of my life - however long that might be.

Bob's original drawing of my in Northern Patagonia

Today I am taking this dear gift to a shop that specializes in building frames for “pictures” that hold meaning beyond their intrinsic beauty. And I will have it framed and matted so that it fits naturally on the wall above my dark mahogany writing desk. Every day I will sit there to write and begin that new day I’ve been granted – and I will remember that moment on the river in Patagonia with Bob... and smile at the joyful power - of Friendship.

“A Season in Patagonia: An Angler and Naturalist’s Journey to a New World.” Will be released by Lyons Press in September of 2026 and will be available for preorder sometime before that.

And, just for your information, this book is dedicated to my friend, Bob White.

Semper Fidelis – Always Faithful

~ Steve