The Quest for Quality

Pirsig asks a valid question, "What is quality?" and it was surprisingly difficult to answer. We all seek after quality in every aspect of our lives. We want to do quality work at our jobs and have a quality family and we find quality in all the things that we spend our money on. It is this idea that the thing that we find quality in is somehow better than the other things that are performing the same duties or serving the same role in our lives. It is hard to grasp the concept of quality because it is unique to each person. This is where we get the saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." There is no one thing that is quality. Quality is relative to what a person values and this is dependent on their culture, religion, beliefs, etc. It is determined by what we feel is superior. So whatever we worship or whatever idols we have, whether that be a god, money, technology, drugs, attention, appearance, that is what we will use as our quality guide. If the thing that we have resembles this idol or brings us closer to this thing that we worship, then it has quality. This can be a very dangerous concept, if we are confused about what quality is we are likely to think that something has quality when it does not. But if we are all capable of creating our own definition of quality then who's to say that something does not have quality? Can we say that anything does not have quality? Does this mean everything has quality? What about humans? Do all humans have quality or can they lack quality? Are there degrees of quality? All of these questions are for us to answer individually. That is why we cannot define it, the concept of quality goes as far as the mind can wander.