So this carpenter, a really skilled carpenter who'd been practicing his trade for a long time, and his apprentice were walking through the countryside and they came by a big tree, a really, really big tree. It was a hot day, and a few people were standing under the shade of its branches. The apprentice stopped to admire the tree. The carpenter glanced at it and just kept walking. After while the apprentice ran to catch up with the carpenter and he said, “Sir why is it that you didn't stop and look at that tree? It was a really big tree.” The carpenter said, “The trunk of that tree has big caverns and cavities. The limbs of that tree are all twisted and gnarled. There is no way to get a good plank out of that tree.

That tree is useless.

 

“And that is exactly why that tree has lived this long. Useful trees are chopped down and cut up to make lumber. They fail to live out their natural life spans. That is the trouble that comes with being useful. 

 

“What that tree thinks is important is not what people who use trees think is important. It turns out to be a useless tree. No one has wanted to cut it down because it was useless. Being useless, it has been able to live out its full life and grow to be huge.”