Sitting at the Bar

Hello, Mr. Barman, I have something to confess.

I confess I'm a serial dilettante. Ever since I remember, I devoted myself to stuff just for the joy of it. Every time, I try to be a very professional dilettante. I guess, at this point in my life, I could even be considered a professional of dilettancy, for so many things I did and tried for just to feel good about myself, I can't even name them all.

( Image: knowyourarchetypes.com )

Always, at some point of any activity that you take too seriously, you think about going pro on it. Whether it's sports, music, writing, or the real estate business. You start by dipping your feet, then, as your interest increases, you study it, practice it and you do it for the joy of improving. I used to do that, until I decided to go pro on the job I had for the past thirty years, but even there, I never went above being a serious dilettante, as my main interest became doing things that were never done before.

Whenever you break new ground on anything, even if you are the most accomplished professional, again, you become a dilettante, as you never know if it's going to work out or not and you still do it, just for the love of it. I confess I've been a dilettante at coins and stamp collecting, trading the stock market and playing poker. I've also been a dilettante at playing music, writing books and cooking food from all over the world. I've been a dilettante at politics, at war and at love. I definitely confess myself to be an eternal dilettante.

I've searched for treasures, hunted rabbits and boar, and spearfished fish that I ate, and at that too, I was a dilettante. I planted gardens and beans and tomatoes and raised livestock as a dilettante too. And I was a dilettante single and married man and am a dilettante father and son. I'm a dilettante at living, rich, poor, splurging money or living on scraps, but always loving every step of the way. A dilettante at being a friend to people who deserved it and to some who didn't. And a dilettante at the general art of trying everything, travelling everywhere and at living monastically in my cell.

And there are other things at which I've been a dilettante too, that I no longer recall, and that, makes me a dilettante at forgetting stuff I don't want to remember. At the end of this general confession in dilettancy, what I ask is if there are any points in this game for being a dilettante, because I think I can fill the Trivial cheese very quickly on this round and I want to be a dilettante at getting prizes for dillettating so much.

But, then again... Aren't we all eternal and uncorrigible dilettantes? If we don't think so, It's possible we're taking ourselves too seriously.

Bring the next round of beers, please!