Today we honor one of the greatest literary and movie fictional characters, Texas Ranger Captain Augustus McCrae. Created by Larry McMurtry in his Pulitzer Prize winning novel Lonesome Dove and portrayed in the movie by the incomparable Robert Duvall, Gus has inspired fans, fan clubs, websites, and social website pages. If you encounter a boy born after 1985 in Texas named Gus, chances are he is named after McCrae. I have even heard of a girl named after him. The Final Footprint – Woodrow buried Gus beside a creek near San Antonio where Gus and his girl Clara used to go on picnics. Woodrow made a cross out of what was left from their The Hat Creek Cattle Company sign. Specifically the part that contained the Latin phrase that Gus insisted be on the sign, much to Woodrow’s consternation. The phrase “uva uvam vivendo varia fit” appears to be a reference to the proverb first attributed to Juvenal, “uva uvam videndo varia fit”. Juvenal’s proverb translates as “A grape seeing other grapes changes.” The phrase as written on the sign translates as “a grape is changed by living with other grapes” or, if we drop the grapes, a person is changed by the other lives lived around that person. Woodrow’s vision definitely changed many lives. Has your vision changed any lives? What is your vision? Who loves everything about Lonesome Dove?
