On the Question of Standards

There is a difference between a craft and a service. A service is finished when the customer is satisfied. A craft is finished when the work meets the standard. Most of the world has stopped asking for the second one. The order has not.

The standard is older than any of us. It does not move when the season turns. It does not negotiate with what the market will tolerate. It is not a matter of taste. It is a matter of refusing to call something done before it is.

We are sometimes asked what the order is for. The honest answer is that the order is for the people who already know. We are simply giving them somewhere to go.