Reclaiming our lives

The first chaper of an ancient Daoist masterpiece (attributed to Zhuang Zhou, c369-286 BCE) concludes with a discourse about a huge twisted and knotted tree that made its wood unusable. Huizi considers the tree useless, and so everyone spurns it. But his friend Zhuangzi responds, "relax and do nothing by its side, or lie down for a free and easy sleep under it."

Zhuangzi suggests further that we should not always aim for usefulness nor strive to produce or do things that benefit ourselves or others. He thought we could reclaim our lives and be happier if we became more useless.