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We Ought to Handle it Ourselves
One of the things you’ve heard me quote again and again over the years is G.K. Chesterton’s adage: “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.” In his characteristically provocative and opaque way, Chesterton tells us that the really valuable stuff of life (such as work, leisure, birthing and rearing children, etc.) is something we ought to handle ourselves, even if it won’t yield perfect results. It’s that important. A true amateur – as understood in its literal sense of a person who does something “for the love” of it – is still a rare breed it seems. The word is often hurled as a pejorative to disparage the work of the non-specialist, but in Chesterton’s view,...
