Self Definition

Self definition can be problematic. In older times a person would take the surname of their trade; Joiner, Carpenter, Thatcher. Now your answer to the question, 'what do you do?' may lie elsewhere. As David Pye said, 'if the crafts are to survive their work will be done for love not money.' 'The continuance of our culture is going to depend more and more on the true amateur, for he alone will be proof against amateurishness.' The main part of a persons life, the part by which they define themself may rest in what some call hobbies. The woman on the check out tll may be better defined by th paintings she produces in her atic on an evening. She could more accurately call herself a painter than a check out girl. Not only is self definition dependent on what one does but is equally dependent on how one negotiates the world. Some bricklayers are philosophers, some factory workers steer through aesthetic intuition; others steer through this life throuh science, a man may load lorries for a living but through angling know the waters better than employed wildlife workers. Who is to deprive these peole the right to define themselves through the work they do in play? The good amateur will always beat the professional as finance is of no consequence. But for the hand of fate, early reproduction or fortune of birth, these people would be leaders in their field. As such I imagine the best philosophers, artists in fact those engaged in any area of understanding may never be noticed.