Amateur

When did the word "amateur" take on an almost negative connotation? Merriam-Webster Online defines "amateur" as:

1 : DEVOTEE, ADMIRER
2 : one who engages in a pursuit, study, science, or sport as a pastime rather than as a profession
3 : one lacking in experience and competence in an art or science

Usually the first definition is the preferred... seems to me, however, that in the vernacular, the third definition is preferred.

This is on my mind because at work we are trying to come up with a term for our customers... many of whom are not professional fabricators, for example, but may actually be quite proficient. If we call them amateurs it could be taken by some to be insulting.

I may just have to call the verbivores....

sky

Infinite colors filtered through water laden clouds into light blue light of day, dark blue light of night.
Always there reminding us that possibilities are endless and no matter how hard we try we can never touch the edge.
sky.

I write

I write every day for ten minutes. In my dreams.
I write my dreams
I write because I cannot speak my heart.
I write words and phrases and sentences that sometimes say nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.

I write to cry. I write to laugh. I write even when it's wrong.
I write stories of lives real and imagined and half remembered.
I write so that I can remember.
So that others will know who I am.
I will know who I am.

rainbow

Purple streams of consciousness pierce the silver clouds of your minds' sky as yellow arrows flow north along the red rock canyon floor.

The infinite sound of whispering wind and thoughts not spoken aloud are held close-- tucked away in a pocket of truth, or in your pink terry cloth bathrobe.

A blue pearl of sanity rolls out onto the floor and
no
one
is
there
to
catch
it.

Your heart beats the rhythm of green primordial ooze bubbling up through the earth's core filling the universe with questions left unanswered.

"Where does the rainbow end, on your soul or on the horizon?"


________________________
inspired by pablo neruda's
Book of Questions
and
a writing workshop with Jill Badonsky