"But I Don't Have Enough Money!"

[DWFII]

Priorities...priorities.

We give lip-service to the idea that a person should "buy the best they can afford." And rightfully so.

But to do that a person has to do more than just peer into the dark recesses of his wallet and declare that $50.00 is the limit. Before a person can determine what he/she can afford they have to determine what "best " means.

I am a great believer in "good, better, best." I know that many in our society would reject such a notion out of hand but I am not so self-satisfied that I do not to always aspire to the next level.

Now, I venture to say that virtually every single contributor to Xmarks bought the computer they log in on. They had to do at least enough research to know that a $50.00 TI calculator was not gonna meet their needs nor their aspirations. I spent over $2000.00 on each of my last four computers and each one was "cutting edge technology" at the time I bought it. I knew it was cutting edge because I did the research. And in doing so I came to know what was good, what was better, and what was best.

I understood the meaning of the word "quality" as it applied to computers, in other words.

And I did the same thing with kilts. That forced me to slow down and not try to satisfy my "itch" so immediately that I completely overlooked the differences between good, better, & best. What I found out was that wool kilts are often heirlooms. But the $50.00-quality kilt was not often, if ever, in even in the running.

A computer generally costs, oh, roughly in the neighborhood of a traditional kilt. Many will blithely shell out two grand for a computer but kick and scream at spending more than $100 on a kilt.

If a kilt costs $50.00 and we throw it away...or perhaps, more likely, get bored with it...after a couple of years, it has still cost $25.00 a year. If I spend $500.00 on a 16 ounce, 10 yard wool kilt and I wear it for five years and my grandson wears it for twenty years and his son inherits it and never wears it...that's still less, on an annual basis, than the cost of a $50.00 kilt. And the great grandchild still has something of value.

Maybe you can wear a denim kilt for five years and pass it on to your grandson...but begs a crucial question--will he want it?

On the other hand, perhaps it's all a matter of commitment...?? and a lifetime of kilting and passing it on isn't really in the cards anyway.