It has become fashionable for one man to say to another, “I love you, man.”
That takes some getting used to for us old-timers, but not because we didn’t always tell our male friends that we loved them. We just did it in a different way.
At our recovery club, we had an old guy who died recently, and everybody misses him enormously. He would rather have died than say, “I love you, man.” But he said it all the time in his own way.
In fact, he had a separate-but-equal way of saying it.
When an old white buddy of his would come in, he would get around to looking at him for a minute and then say, “You know, you are the ugliest white man I ever saw in my life.”
On the other hand, when an old black buddy came in he would usually look at him a minute and say, “You are the ugliest man of color that was ever born.”
And what this meant was, “You don’t mind me saying that because you know I think the world of you.”
And he didn’t discriminate against women either. He referred to them as “You old bag.”
My brother will say, “Bob, comb your damned hair.” I’m 63 years old and he is older, and he is the only person who has the right to say that. He’s my brother.
It all means, “I love you, man.”
I just like the old way better.
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