Amateurs ...

... and amateurs: What They Do for Love. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Winston Churchill is a good example of the serious amateur. When not busy saving the Western world, Churchill loved to paint and did it surprisingly well. Had his life followed a different course, he might possibly have evolved into a second-tier post-Impressionist painter of real quality. Instead he became a politician, one so famous and powerful that there was no shortage of people willing to tell him that he was a better artist than he was. Yet Churchill took great care not to allow himself to fall into the trap of letting such praise turn his head. He never sold his canvases, and rarely signed them or allowed them to be exhibited. In "Painting as a Pastime," one of his wittiest and most insightful pieces of writing, he displayed his essential modesty toward the "delightful amusement" that gave him so much joy: "We must not be ambitious. We cannot aspire to masterpieces. We may content ourselves with a joy-ride in a paint-box."