The twisted tree lives its life. The normal tree ends up in straight boards.
Adapted from “Zhuangzi” by Lao-Tze:
“Hui Zi said to Zhuangzi:
I have a large tree people call the Ailanthus. Its huge trunk is covered with so many knotty lumps that a carpenter’s measuring tools couldn’t find the middle of it. Its small branches are so bent that a carpenter’s ruler couldn’t measure them. It stands there spreading out in so many directions that a woodsman wouldn’t even take notice of it. Just now, sir, you used words that are so big and useless most people would ignore them.
Zhuangzi replied:
Sir, haven’t you ever watched a lone bobcat or weasel? It stays low to the ground, crouching down, waiting for something to unwittingly stroll by. Jumping up high in all directions, not being able to avoid what is above or below, preoccupied with a sense of invulnerability, it then gets snared and dies in a hunter’s net. Then there’s the adult yak, which seems to be as big as a cloud in the sky. It’s really huge! Yet it can’t even catch a mouse. You, sir, have a large tree and are worried that it’s useless. Why not transplant the tree from your own neighborhood into the vast wilderness. There you could pace back and forth next to it while doing nothing. Without a care in the world, you could lie down under it and go to sleep. Neither an ax nor hatchet would threaten its existence. It would be out of harm’s way. What’s truly useless should be able to get some peace and quiet!”