“The mountain tree plunders itself. The candle fat scorches itself. The cinnamon tree is edible, and thus it gets chopped down. The lacquer tree is useful, and thus it is cut down. Everyone knows how useful usefulness is, but no one seems to know how useful uselessness is.” — Zhuangzi
The picture is of George flexing his seemingly useless biceps with a big bottle of Bulleitt Rye Bourbon in the foreground. (Ryan appears to be in a kilt in the background.) Many of the things we do at our gym, Asheville Strength, would be deemed quite useless by any utilitarian calculation. But that doesn’t mean that they are devoid of value.
This particular translation of Zhuangzi’s quote is by Brook Ziporyn, in his translated and edited version of Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings – with Selections from Traditional Commentaries.
Now go lift something heavy,
Nick Horton
The post The Value of Uselessness: Biceps & Bourbon – Quote: Zhuangzi appeared first on THE IRON SAMURAI.
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