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RE: Amateur or Professional
Carmen wrote:
> PS: I thought that Diane Walstad had a graduate degree in aquatic
> horticulture/taxonomy or something of the like...? (Is my memory
> failing?)
> That wouldn't qualify her as an amateur.
Ooops! Sorry, perhaps I should have defined my terms. An amateur (in my mind
anyway) is someone who engages in an activity primarily out of the pleasure
that they derive from it, while a professional (again, in my mind) is
someone who does it primarily as a source of income. Educational
qualifications don't really enter into it. I think that would put most, if
not all of us in the amateur classification. The term is certainly NOT a put
down nor an opinion of worth or ability. Many of us are proud to be
amateurs.
For example, the guy (or lady) mucking out tanks at the local pet emporium
is "professional", even if he/she knows next to nothing about fish. So would
the keepers at any of the large Public Aquariums be "professionals",
although in their cases I'm sure that they are usually also experts.
But folks like Steve Pushak, Olga Betts, Erik Olson, George Booth, or Roger
Miller, while ALL experts at this hobby, are in it for the love, not the
money, and are amateurs in the best sense of the term.
James Purchase
Toronto