Mistakes. We all make them and some of them are doozies. People have lost careers over a faulty decision–think Captain Hazelwood drunk astern on the Valdez. A mistaken choice often produces incredible fruit–Fermi’s first chain reaction. I have come to believe that there’s really no such thing as a mistake.…
Leave a CommentAuthor: Patrick Dobson
Dr. Patrick Dobson is a work in progress until his termination. In the meantime, He is a writer, scholar, postman, and college professor living in Kansas City, MO.
The University of Nebraska Press published his travel memoirs, Canoeing the Great Plains: A Missouri River Summer in 2015 and Seldom Seen: A Journey into the Great Plains in 2009. Canoeing the Great Plains won the 2016 High Plains Book Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Thorpe Menn Literary Excellence Award. His essays and poems have been published in New Letters, daCunha, Kansas City Star, Garo, Wood Coin, and JONAHmagazine, and others.
Dobson earned a doctorate in American History and Literature at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2013. He has edited books, taught journalism, and been a union ironworker. He now teaches American History, Modern Latin American History, and Western Civilization at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, KS.
He looks forward to hearing from you soon.
Mrs. Gilbert made me want to be a writer. It was the second grade and I don’t remember what kind of literature we were reading. Only two things mattered to me at the time. (1) I wanted to impress Mrs. Gilbert. She was by far the youngest teacher in the…
One CommentThe trip only remains with me in its broad strokes. I don’t remember if I kept notes of the journey. If I did, they’re in one of the journals sprawled across the top shelf of a bookcase. Typically, I may not have taken notes, not understanding at the time just…
2 CommentsLet me tell you about my kid. Nick single-handedly created his own summertime volunteer job at the community center. A little over a month ago, he asked if it was a good idea if he volunteered with the day camp program. There was no sign or advertisement for it. The…
2 CommentsA hot afternoon. The sun bakes the pavement. Kids walk back and forth before the house as they shuttle from home to the pool and back. The dogs are quiet, laying in back yards in the shade. My own pups are taking it easy in the air conditioning. I look…
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