Free to be Non-Perfect

Recently, I read an essay titled "The Avenging Amateur" written by Kurt Anderson in Time magazine. (TIME, August 10, 2009) This got me thinking about how people often don't pursue their interests because they feel they just don't have the time it would take for them to become an "expert" at (fill in the blank.) I remember long ago hearing someone define what an "expert" really is and it went something like this: An "ex" is a "has been" and a "spurt" is a "drip under pressure." So, if you put them both together, ex+spurt, you have a "has-been drip under pressure." Well, I knew I didn't ever want to be an ex-spurt, so I set out long ago to become a dabbler, an "amateur," of sorts. I've dabbled in art, and photography, and writing, and violin playing, and who knows what else. Some of these dabblings, like photography, have "stuck" and become a permanent part of my daily life. I found it interesting that, as Mr. Anderson pointed out in his essay, back in the "olden days"..."an amateur was an entirely positive adjective. An amateur pursuit meant something that one pursued - a field of study, an artistic enterprise, a craft - not unseriously, but out of love rather than merely to earn a living. Amateurs do the things they want to do in the ways they want to do them. They don't worry too much about breaking the rules and aren't paralyzed by a fear of imperfection or even failure." This equates to me, to mean Passion. What are you passionate about? What have you always wanted to do but haven't done because you're afraid you might not be "good enough"? Take a leap and do it now... Embrace your "Inner Amateur!"

Read Kurt Anderson's article at: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1913776,00.html


all photos by Deby Alm http://www.flickr.com/photos/debyc/