Thoughts From The Duck

Discussions of professionalism always happen when youth workers gather. It's an inevitability. As I was reading my blogs this morning, I came across a blog from Ian, a British youth minister. In a forum he was reading, someone posted the definition of profession. So good, I'm re-posting here. Looking at the 'roots' of such things ... from the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary, we find: Main Entry: pro·fes·sion Pronunciation: \prə-ˈfe-shən\ Function: noun Etymology: Middle English professioun, from Anglo-French profession, from Late Latin & Latin; Late Latin profession-, professio, from Latin, public declaration, from profitēri Date: 13th century 1: the act of taking the vows of a religious community 2: an act of openly declaring or publicly claiming a belief, faith, or opinion : protestation 3: an avowed religious faith 4 a: a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation b: a principal calling, vocation, or employm...

For the second year in a row, I spent the day before the Oscars watching all five best picture nominees. Last year, I blogged about it, and I figured, I should blog about it again! Last year, the commonality between the five films was the fact that each movie didn't end in a perfect way. There was no real story book ending. This year, the commonality was much more concrete. All five were told in flashback form. I was surprised! I was expecting to have to think about the commonality. In the middle of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, I realized that the prior 2 had used the same storytelling technique. Then, when Slumdog Millionaire started, I noticed the same thing. I expected Frost/Nixon to not use that technique...I was wrong. I was hoping/wishing for something more profound, but I really think that's it. Milk was the story of Harvey Milk, the gay rights activist, and first openly gay politician. The Reader was the story of a relationship, post WWII. (As a friend...