"Everyone knows the usefulness of the useful, but no one knows the usefulness of the useless."
In your everyday life, what is something that 'looks useless but you'd never give up'—and what value does it hold for you?
Why the 'useless' tree even the carpenter wouldn't cut survived
Zhuangzi lived amid the chaos of the Warring States period as a minor official of a lacquer garden, cheerfully twisting a world that chased power and fame. When the King of Chu offered him high office, he declined, saying he'd rather be a turtle dragging its tail in the mud than a sacred turtle honored after death.
The 'In the World of Men' chapter tells of Carpenter Shi, who passed by a huge oak at a shrine, dismissing it as useless timber. That night, the tree appeared in his dream and said that it was precisely because it was useless that it had never been cut down and could grow so large.