Quantity vs Quality

A subject I have been dwelling upon for a day or two and finally came to some conclusions about this question.

A week or so ago, I answered a question "When it comes to crafting which do you prefer?"  

I actually answered the question wrongly, or rather differently than any of the other respondents.  I came at the question from a different direction than anyone else who submitted their thoughts.  You can go and see the question and answers by a variety of people, including me.  http://www.favecraftsblog.com/monthly-craft-question-quantity-vs-quality/

Now, that you are back do you see how my answer did not fit in with every other answer?  I wondered why?  And I have been wondering why for the last couple of days.  Turns out, to me, this is a more important question than I at first realized.

First, everyone who answered the question assumed that they actually have a choice between quantity and quality.  In general, so do I, most of the time anyway.   As for the question having to do with crafting -- one must have quality materials to create quality products, so because I have NEVER been easily able to choose a sufficient quantity of quality materials, I have created items to the best of my ability with materials that in most cases come from sale stock or are "vintage" from the 2nd hand stores or garage sales that I frequent.   In many instances I have a choice, to buy 1 meter of top quality newly released designs or buy 3 or 4 meters of year or older "sale" materials. Now, in the case of quilt making -- it is really not possible to make a quilt with one single cut of top quality fabric, so in this case my option, my choice becomes "What is the best quality I can get at discounted prices?"

And this is what blurs the question of Quantity vs Quality.

As a child, I grew up mostly on a farm -- my father worked in the city, driving 20 miles to his place of work everyday, in fine weather and bad and dangerous weather.   He provided the income for our family that paid the 'traditional' bills -- mortgage, car payment, and clothing.   Our farm provided the "intangibles".  We only had about 25 acres, but that was alot for my mother to manage.  The farm provided 95 per cent of the food we ate.  Even so, we still did not have alot of extra dollars to go around, so things such as clothes were usually second hand along with toys and many of the household items such as dishes, pots, utensils, towels, etc.  My mother used to say after you have worn a brand new shirt once and it has been washed, no one knows that the shirt you got from the 2nd hand store was not first worn by you...

As a child, my choice was often quantity over quality.  What good would one shiny crystal crock (large marble) be without 20 or 50 other marbles to make it a game, so 50 plain regular marbles was the first choice everytime.

This is how I was taught that choice sometimes meant that quantity was the choice to make over quality.   It was always better to have two or three second hand dresses than one dress that could only be worn for a special occassion.   We learned early that "something was better than nothing"  in EVERYTHING.

As my years have progressed the choice between quantity and quality became a Mother's question.  Two growing sons taught me that often Quality was the way to go even if I had to sacrifice a choice somewhere else.  As teens my boys played sports and did ALOT of running -- shoes became important -- the quality shoe not only helped them to be part of the sports they wanted to play but the quality shoe would out last the cheap wal-mart runner by at least 3 to 5 times the length of usefulness and therefore cost less in the LONG run!

Maybe it is only me (it sort of seemed like it by my answer of the question I replied to) but I thought just having the choice between quantity and quality is somewhat of a luxury.

Do you have that choice?  I bet you do!  You make the choice between quality and quantity every single day.  Do you go to the grocery story and buy 2 freshly baked loaves of bread or do you first go to check the day old bread and take home 4 or 6 loaves of the exact same baked bread that came out of the oven 2 days ago?  Me, I always choose the day old bread!  Habit, somewhat, necessity also often true.

Now -- to the point of this whole thought, of Quantity vs Quality.

What if you didn't even get a choice?  What if because of finances, perhaps bad choices others made for you, your choices were taken away.  Your single mother HOPES she has enough to get a turkey for christmas, she HOPES she can find SOMETHING for the child to open on Christmas morning.   What about the young man who even though it is his own fault is now living on a downtown street, he will be lucky to have the choice between a cold doorway Christmas night or a blanket in a corner of a overcrowded shelter.

Not only was it the initial question posed by Favecraft about Quantity vs Quality but it has also been the ongoing news story about the Attawapiskat First Nation Emergency which is not so unusual in our own rich country of Canada.  You can google the news stories if you have not heard of this (especially if you are outside of Canada).  Distress is not just in Africa, or Cuba, or remote areas of the world. 

My wish for the world and those humans living on it is that we all be able to have the basic choice of Quantity vs Quality.   What if your choice for Christmas was between a shelter, any shelter and one meal?  Which would be your choice?

Take the time to think about your own choices between Quantity and Quality -- How lucky you (and I) are!