There is an ancient Taoist story about a tree. The tree was old and crooked; every branch twisted and gnarled. Somebody walking by that old and crooked tree commented to Chuang Tzu what a useless tree it was; because the trunk and branches were so crooked the tree served no purpose at all.
Chuang Tzu replied:
"The tree on the mountain height is its own enemy....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."
The uselessness of the tree is what protected it. Nobody wanted it for anything, so they didn't cut it down, and it lived to be very old, fulfilling its own nature
Taken from "The Experience of Insight" by Joseph Goldstein. For more information on this book please click here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0877732264/ref=sib_dp_pt/002-2834233-6426429#reader-link
