Quality
“A person who sees Quality and feels it as he works is a person who cares. A person who cares about what he sees and does is a person who’s bound to have some characteristics of Quality.”
Robert Pirsig
Although there are many definitions of quality, I decided to embrace the concept of quality as it refers to material goods produced by humans. We are surrounded by man-made (woman-made) artifacts and use many of them in our daily lives. And the quality of these things vary widely. For some the quality matters little, especially in a throw-away culture such as ours. For others quality is of utmost importance, as in things meant to be used well and then passed on to others.
WWII simultaneously created the innovation and capacity for producing volumes of consumer goods and rationing of those goods due to the war effort. Post-war the rising affluence of the population was unleashed upon industry due to pent up demand and sheer prodigious availability of everything one's heart could desire, or were told by advertising should be desired. Quality was sacrificed for quantity.
I saw the result in the American automobile. The cars of my parents were assembled crudely. One measure was the alignment of body parts; a door panel could touch the frame at the top and have a half inch gap at the bottom. The old joke was never buy a car assembled on Monday because the workers were still drunk and never buy one assembled on Friday because of the workers getting ready for the weekend.
Harley-Davidson motorcycles were fine until the bean-counters required cheaper parts and faster assembly. The brand suffered until they were over-ruled and quality returned. The P T Cruiser was a successful fun cult car until a similar thing happened and the interiors made of cheap materials fell apart.
Closer to home was my experience with lawn mowers. When we moved here we were financially tapped out. I bought a cheap mower for $99 and used it for a year when it fell apart. I repeated this cycle for several years until I could afford a Honda mower. I've had it for 25 years; still runs and starts well.
Quality things are now more available as people recognize what it is and what it should be. How long do your lightbulbs last? Did you know there's one that's been burning for 113 years? That's what I call a quality product.
My own example of a totally quality product is my Thermapen instant read thermometer. You can get them cheaper but don't waste your money.
What are some examples in your lives of things of incredible quality or the opposite?
Some garden photos. Onions tell you when they are ready when 50% of the stalks fall over of their own accord. Then you should bend over the rest and stop watering till harvest. This is one of my two beds and we're at that point.
This is the main tomato bed, 18 plants 17 plants (damn gopher). I should have a red one in a week. This is way ahead of schedule.
This is bed two, planted a week later. The plants are a bit smaller so I made the photo larger. Either that or more fertilizer.
We try to set a quality table at KTK.
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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