Quality

The Oxford English Dictionary defines quality as the degree of excellence of a thing. Of high quality. But who determines the quality of something, who decides that the highest quality of any given thing? Does each person give each thing its own quality and value? Does life have a specific quality to it, and who has the highest quality of life: the rich who have everything or the poor who have nothing and appreciate smallest of things? Quality obviously is not who much you have or don’t have, but what you make out of what you do have no matter how big or how small of an amount you have.

The novel Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance discusses quality and what it means to have quality within your life. Robert Pirsig talks of the different qualities he and a friend sees within the maintaining of their motorcycles. For Pirsig quality of life was spending time with his son driving across the country and seeing the beauty within. How many of us can say that’s how we measure the quality in our own lives? It goes along with Emerson and Thoreau stating to enjoy life, really enjoy life, one needs to spend time within nature and view the natural beauty around.

No one else can determine what quality for us is, only we can do that. But how do WE define quality for ourselves? How do we know when something has more quality than something else? If we don’t think our life has quality is there a way to change it and make it more quality-based? A Hannah Montana song says “life is what you make it,” how true those words ring for anyone of any age. Life is what you make it, life has quality no matter what you may think or see. Robert Pirsig saw quality in riding a motorcycle across the country. Emerson and Thoreau saw quality in life just by sitting in the forest listening to the songs of the birds and other wildlife.

Quality of life is everywhere, quality of life and of everything else is within each of us. It’s not in what we do or the things we have, but within us. We give quality to everything around us. Pirsig talks about a person chi as well, one’s chi and quality could very well be the same exact things. How they live their lives (that’s chi). How you live your life defines the quality of it. If you look at your life and don’t think there is much to it, then change, look for ways to find who you are and what you want and need from life and then make the necessary changes needed to change your life and give it more quality. Quality in something is different for each person. Who are we to try and determine if someone else has quality within their life or something has quality? We’re not, we need to look towards our own life to find out what the true meaning of quality is for each of us.