‽istis ponders
enthusiastic amateurs (weekending June 15th 2024)
This weekending ‽istis is pondering enthusiastic amateurs and professionals,
levels of satisfaction and results…
It started
with a conversation in a Church, looking for a plug socket that could be used
to power a little portable multi-track recording gizmo to ‘capture’ - or, in folk parlance, to 'collect' a planned concert,
an evening of (enthusiastic amateur) voices hopefully in harmony and intent on
singing:
‽ What have we done
in this country, we have lost our loved ones, give us strength, it is heavy… (Siphamandla)
‽ A warning song about dangerous people… (Rene
rebapala motho a wela)
‽ The moon is a
small well, flowers are worth nothing, it’s your arms which are valuable, they
say there are twenty-four hours in the day, if there were twenty-seven I would
love you three hours more (Zorongo)
‽ All my friends are
dancing, where has the night gone? (Sao Roma)
‽ Yemama a se soo – and the moment where the river meets the sea
‽ Our home in
heaven, this is a promise (Vuma)
‽ We are far more –
united (inspired by words of Jo Cox, a UK
politician murdered in 2016)
‽ Alleluia, Amen
…perhaps, possibly, maybe despite…
So, back to the conversation, a mutual admission was made: to
being enthusiastic amateurs - respectively in photography and audio recording
(where engineering is far too ambitious a word).
In a spirit of shared inexpertise and definitely undinted optimism
in the face of realism, some observations were also made:
· the enthusiastic amateur may be willing and may need to put lots of extra time into the endeavour – and simply the spending of time may bring its own incidental and collateral benefits, for self and for others
· perhaps once an enthusiastic amateur is reconciled to the idea that the process may be more rewarding than the outcome, then a quantum of solace (what does that mean?) could be there for the claiming, irrespective of the result
· the enthusiastic amateur (can we claim identifying initials for this – the EA – or would that be too pretentious, even too professional sounding?) is perhaps unlikely to get to the point of seeing the task or endeavour as ‘just a job’, not least as there may well be another ‘day job’ that the task or endeavour provides some escape or distraction from - but probably on no account should be given up just yet!
· the EA (apologies!) perhaps has an appreciation of where expertise and skill might more properly be located – in the case of photography or audio recording it could be the clever folks who make the gizmos and who especially make them and the instructions - usable and accessible
· the EA may well even have a higher level of satisfaction than a professional: the former being amazed when simply remembering to press ‘record’ is the greatest challenge and anything else is a bonus; the latter perhaps frustrated at not being able to achieve what they know is possible or expected, especially when uncontrollable variables enter the dynamic.
So ‽istis, enthusiastically (but perhaps a bit amateurishly)
is left wondering whether more could be done to celebrate EAs across the nation
and also to find ways to better recognise, appreciate and acknowledge the
expertise of those who definitely ‘can’ and ‘do’ at impressive levels of achievement
- especially where skill and dedication maybe somewhat taken for granted in the
search for the next superlative; where the scale of the achievement of the next ‘best’ / the next current winner / the
next for-now-‘world-beater’ may be disguised by the oh so near similar
expertise of their peers – and the greatness of them all is at risk of being overlooked.
So, here's a couple of suggestions that could separate the EA
sheep from the GOAT[i]s
· the Euro 2024 football competition is about to start: oh, for a match or two to be thrown in to the schedule – an international team (name drawn from a hat) required to put up their best squad against a willing and joyously enthusiastic amateur local side with a wonderful and unlikely chance to appear on the grand stage
· in this Olympic year what an additional frisson of interest there could be if the flagship 100m finals were to include an extra lane - to be run in by a representative from the participants in the parents’/carers’ races at the sports day held in the school nearest to the stadium…
Meanwhile ‽istis needs to remember to press the ‘record’ button after which anything
else could be a delightfully surprising and ridiculously pleasing bonus - or
not…
©‽istis
NB: further reflections and comments linked to this
week’s theme and past blog entries to be found on X/Twitter with replies,
retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very
opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders.
X/Twitter ‘follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...
