Frank Dobie was, from the words of Harry Ransom, ¿one of the greatest teachers the University of Texas ever had.¿ (95) To begin with this statement was quite an intrigue for me, after all I had heard of the man, but never of his teaching skills or of his personal life. In fact my only real connection with him was by name recognition. As I turned the pages of tonight¿s reading, I saw that Dobie was someone much deeper than I would of thought. To begin with his passion about life was inspiring, ¿His love of the land was intense. The ¿plot of earth¿ where he was born, he said, ¿has said more to me than any person I have known, or any writer I have read, though only through association with fine minds spirits I have come to realize its sayings.¿ (96) This feeling he expressed is not rare, after all we attempt to find it in Professor Bump¿s class every day. The way to express that feeling so concisely is rare however, and I enjoyed his statement that

¿Woodsworth has given me more about nature than any other writer.¿ (96) I think my attraction to statements like this connect to my knowing that the end of the year is so near. As a culmination activity, this reading fulfilled that goal. All the reminisces of nature made me think of everything we have been thought in this class this year. Every time I step outside I do notice things that before I would not have. For Dobie, however, nature is an intregal part of society, as is our connection to it. After all, ¿A man was no better than his horse.¿ (123) The writings at length about these horses required me to pay special attention and attempt to not be distracted! Two things specifically stuck me as interesting, first the idea of querencia, ¿as the vaquero language calls the place where an animal is born or to which he shows a strong attachment.¿(104) Home is now a place that seems so close, but these next few weeks seem so long to get there. We have a strong attachment to this place, but it is also a bit mysterious why we are draw back there ¿ the same way the horses are drawn to where they need to be as well. The other thing that was entertaining, was the fact that Dobie is described as a ¿critic of the Texas scene,¿ but also describes the horses mentality as ¿instead of being outside the law, they followed the law of the wild, the stark give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death law against tyranny.¿ (113) After the Spirit of Texas adventure I cannot help but smile at the use of this phrase, and at Texas history in general. You can tell that Dobie was a strong Texan and proud of where he came from, which is also probably why he was such a vocal criticizer, after all you only truly criticize if you care about what it is your talking about.