Useful... That always makes me think of this:
THE USELESS TREEHui Tzu said to Chuang:
I have a big tree,
The kind they call a "stinktree. "
The trunk is so distorted,
So full of knots,
No one can get a straight plank
Out of it.
The branches are so crooked
You cannot cut them up
In any way that makes sense.
There it stands beside the road.
No carpenter will even look at it.
Such is your teaching
Big and useless.
Chuang Tzu replied:
Have you ever watched the wildcat
Crouching, watching his prey
This way it leaps, and that way,
High and low, and at last
Lands in the trap.
But have you seen the yak?
Great as a thundercloud
He stands in his might.
Big? Sure,
He can't catch mice!
So for your big tree. No use?
Then plant it in the wasteland
In emptiness.
Walk idly around,
Rest under its shadow;
No axe or bill prepares its end.
No one will ever cut it down.
Useless? You should worry!
-
The Value of UselessnessThe tree on the mountain height is its own enemy.
The grease that feeds the light devours itself.
The cinnamon tree is edible: so it is cut down!
The lacquer tree is profitable: they maim it.
Every man knows how useful it is to be useful.
No one seems to know
How useful it is to be useless.
---
And when I hear Trump promising to solve everyone's problems and give people everything they'd ever asked for... I always think of this:
The Marsh PeasantThe little marsh pheasant
Must hop ten times
To get a bite of grain.
She must run a hundred steps
Before she takes a sip of water.
Yet she does not ask
To be kept in a hen run
Though she might have all she desired
Set before her.
She would rather run
And seek her own little living
Uncaged.
