Zen, Motorcycles, Mud and Quality

That should get someone’s attention. This is not one of those “MAN BITES DOG!” headlines … these things are actually very definitely connected….

Anyone that read books by Vonnegut and JD Salinger in High School back in the ’70s probably came across Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. It is a semi-autobiographic, road trip, father-son bonding book about Pirsig and his son Chris. It’s is about Zen, some about motorcycle maintenance. And a good bit about Pirsig’s emotional and mental breakdowns that led him to spend part of the early ’60s in and out of mental institutions (with Electro Shock Therapy thrown in as well). But the book is really about is Quality.

Which is why I was assigned the book as a text for a Ceramics class. Yep … a ceramics class. The instructor was let’s just say, unconventional. Who needs glazes anyway when you understand Quality!

I dont want to spend a lot of time talking about the book (read it if you get the chance … not what I would call light reading but worth the effort … I re-read it every 5 years or so).

Why I am talking about this is that ZAMM (as the book is sometimes abbreviated) is where I first was ‘turned on’ to the idea of quality. We usually hear this word in one of two contexts: quality standards used in a manufacturing environment and the experience of Quality, as in Quality of Life or when we speak of quality time with our spouse or family. The former is very specifically defined, the latter somewhat more elusive.

Ford Motor Company used the advertising slogan “Quality is Job 1” to create the image of a dependable car and truck manufacturer at a time when imports were being favored over domestic brands. Ford did not say, “High Quality is Job 1.” It didn’t need to. Without any additional adjectives, Quality is understood to be a good thing. In a manufacturing context, Quality is measurable and testable. For instance, there are very precise physical tolerances and performance guidelines for the components that go into a new Ford Mustang. The ultimate goal for Ford, however, is to produce a car that creates an experience of Quality in the mind and emotions of buyers. This perception of value is a major reason we buy certain cars and other products and experiences.

This is the meaning of Quality I am associating with wealth - it is the ‘feeling’ of wellbeing that is associated with the most satisfying aspects of our existence. Wealth is the Quality of your life. Quality is how we experience value. It is the “archetype” for wealth, an idealized model or state we seek in all dimensions of our wellbeing. Quality, like happiness or being in love, is hard to define but we know it when we experience it. Quality is contentment, it is bliss, it is losing yourself in the moment, it is self-evident. It just is; it’s a one or none proposition, like the binary language of computers.

Something either has Quality or it does not. Like Yoda said: “There is only Do or Do Not. There is no Try.”

My challenge to you is this: how much Quality do you have in your life right now? What areas of your wellbeing - health and fitness, finances, intellectual growth, relationships, etc. are you perfectly content with, see no room for improvement, wouldn’t change for the world? I want you to know that this is indeed possible … in some cases it is not that you have to change WHAT is going on in all those areas so much as how you perceive what is going on in your life. But that’s a topic for another day.

Back to the ceramics class and ZAMM. The instructor (Charlene Felos from Cypress College in So Cal) wanted us to understand (more appropriately, to “grok”) the concept of Quality with respect to making art. To get to the point where we knew the piece was complete, that the bowl was centered “enough,” that we could - in all of our Orange County raised, 19 year-old wisdom, be present and complete with results of the craft we were learning.

Needless to say, this was a pretty cool class ….

Cheers to your wealth!