In favour of no labels

Tony Gutteridge asks in Readers’ Letters, who or what is an engineer? A quick search of Google or the dictionary will give you the modern answer or several versions. An engineer could be a person who designs, builds or maintains engines, machines, structures or other equipment. Usually it’s someone that may even solve a problem you didn’t know you had in a way the lay person wouldn’t understand…

The point being, going back to the old days of labelling people based on what or which organisation they may or may not belong to, is gone – and rightly so. I personally belong to several, but I fully accept and appreciate there are highly skilled and talented people I meet that don’t belong to any; it does not detract from their skills, abilities or right to be designated an engineer in their field. My gorgeous wife of 40 years who has kept home and family and suffered my company for all that time is in my book a fully time served and qualified domestic engineer.

In closing it’s worth noting the relative differences between an optimist, a pessimist and an engineer. An optimist will say the glass is half full; a pessimist that the glass is half empty. An engineer, on the other hand, will observe that the glass in question is twice the size it really needs to be for the job in hand! Keep up the great work. Kevin Webb