Louis L’Amour

Last month I happened to pick up a box of Louis L’Amour westerns.  “Louie” wrote hundreds of westerns that I read as a teenager.  

Like many other books they were a pleasant way to spend time.  No cosmic truths, no brilliant word plays, no plot twists, just a basic western with fighting, cattle drives, horses and all that home on the range stuff.  AND a beautiful woman always popped up wherever our hero happened to be.

The hero always won and he always got the girl. They were good teenager books.

Over the past months I have re-read them.  I was amazed at the moral lessons and insights I missed.  In every book, “Pay your debts, both money and morally.” “Do the right thing.” “Protect women, children and the helpless.”

“Do an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.”  “Stand up for what is right and be willing to fight for it.” 

“When you start a job, finish it.”

“Other cultures are different and you can’t judge them by your standards or expect them to conform to yours.”

Of course you could teach your children many of the same lessons using a Bible or other spiritual books but you can’t go wrong teaching good character traits.  It had to have helped my character to have these lessons reinforced hundreds of times. 

There were also regular discussions as people from the “civilized East” adjusted to a culture with little or no formal law enforcement.  They were told, “People have to have rules in order to live together.  Those rules must be enforced by force from good people or else Bad People will take advantage of the weak.” 

“You can either be ruled by the most powerful or you can be ruled by a democracy.”

This was and is great stuff. 

If you would like to borrow a Louis L’Amour I’ll be happy to share.  Just stop by the office.