- "**The story is about a carpenter who sees a tree** (in one version, a serrate oak, a similar-looking relative to our coast live oak) **of impressive size and age**. But the carpenter passes it right by, declaring it a “worthless tree” that has only gotten to be this old because its gnarled branches would not be good for timber. Soon afterward, the tree appears to him in a dream and asks, “Are you comparing me with those useful trees?” The tree points out to him that fruit trees and timber trees are regularly ravaged. **Meanwhile, uselessness has been this tree’s strategy: “This is of great use to me. If I had been of some use, would I ever have grown this large?”** The tree balks at the distinction between usefulness and worth, made by a man who only sees trees as potential timber: **“What’s the point of this—things condemning things? You a worthless man about to die—how do you know I’m a worthless tree?”** ([Location 167](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07RHWKD7N&location=167)) --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[momento-mori]], [[context]], **Source** -- [[20251230081807 - B - How to Do Nothing]]