I recently began a discussion with a friend on quality and luxury. We each indicated we valued quality and struggled at times to define the nuanced difference between the two. This interested me greatly and I wanted to dig in more deeply to understand how this friend and others developed a sense for quality, what it meant to them and how they differentiated quality from luxury.
My initial thought was to see if we could create a list of determining factors or criteria that would determine quality for us. But then I realized I wanted to know if we were talking about the quality of life or of results or of things and my questions just kept on coming. So I needed to back-up and understand where my own definition or basis for the term quality came from and so I started with definitions. There are only 8 listed in the Merriam Webster online!
I grew up with the definition of “degree of excellence” but one that always seemed to trend toward “social status”. When as a child I heard quality used it was generally in reference to workmanship on tangible things. Such ideas included the idea that a person should save their money so they could buy items of quality that would in turn grow in value, as in an investment in antiques for example. But also, quality things had a long life. They were durable. But, in order to buy durable or investment possible items, one must necessarily have knowledge to understand what meets this criteria and what does not as well as the funds available to make the purchase. Knowledge and money were ultimately conveyed to me in terms of social status, perhaps in the sense of old wealth has made good decisions and knows quality when it sees it.
Yet, this definition had I realized, been clashing in some ways with what I observed and experienced around me. Primarily it was its basis on things. Quality things do impart a sense of comfort and ease of use. But quality things also come and go, can be lost, can be taken, can be accumulated, can break. And this says nothing about quality of life.
Quality of life seems to stem from another definition, that of “peculiar and essential character” and perhaps “distinguishing attribute”. These essential details are intentional habits and choices and ways of being in the world that each of us choose for ourselves and our families. But whereas the quality of things might be listed in terms of criteria, quality of life is omnidirectional containing depth, beneath and around the choices, which we may struggle to put into words, but know it when we feel it. Is this feeling luxury or is that something else entirely?
