The Past is Gone [Spoiler Alert]

One theme that was incredibly impactful to me that I haven't seen discussed here is the consistent grasp for past memories that never quite panned out the way that characters had hoped. The most obvious is Call and Gus riding together in their older age, but Gus and Clara, Elmira and Dee, etc. Bolivar didn't go on the trip because he went back to Mexico to be with his wife, and ended up landing back in Lonesome Dove.

Many characters were, in one way or another, reaching back into their past to re-achieve some happiness or contentment that they once remembered. Gus choosing to be buried in "Clara's Orchard" instead of with Clara herself was incredibly powerful to me. He chose the memory of her over being near her for eternity, because the memory held the real power.

I may be reading my own life into the book, but I think one of the main lessons of the story is that the past cannot be reconjured, no matter how badly you want it. Elmira dragged herself half dead to be reunited with Dee, and it wasn't what she had hoped.

I can't decide if the characters or over-romanticizing the past, or if the point is that no matter how great something once was, once its gone its gone. Curious to hear what everyone thinks of this.