For years I have visited and revisited the 11th verse of the Tao Te Ching. I met this text in 2004. A friend recited it to me from memory as he observed me carefully encasing glass jars in shrink wrap like handmade paper. Imprinted in my mind, I find myself repeating it at the most inexplicable moments.
Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub;
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes which make it useful.
Therefore profit comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there.
-Lao Tzo, Tao Te Ching