Your amateur...is delightfully if perhaps almost sinfully free of responsibility and can spread himself as thin as he likes over the vast field of nature. There are few places not covered with concrete or trod into dust where he does not find something to look at. Best of all, perhaps, is the fact that he feels no pressing obligation to "add something to the sum of human knowledge." He is quite satisfied when he adds something to his knowledge. And if he keeps his field wide enough he will remain so ignorant that he may do exactly that at intervals very gratifyingly short...to the amateur, any flower he has never seen before is a new species so far as he is concerned.
Joseph Wood Krutch, The Forgotten Peninsula
This is me all over. The only professional status I would claim is that of a teacher; I have been thoroughly trained in pedagogy. Otherwise, I am an amateur in all branches of knowledge, and avail myself of the delights that Krutch describes.
Breakfast is being served
3 years ago
