Life Wisdom - By Words of Taoism
Aug 29, 2026 · 20 min · 11 segments
Most of us have promised ourselves, at some point, that we would live more simply. **More resources:** - Free resources, books and more on…
Chen LiHost
Consider a bookshelf for a moment, because objects are the easiest place to see the pattern.
On any bookshelf, there are books that have been read and loved and will be opened again.
There are also books that have never been opened and, if we are honest, never will be.
and the unread books contribute to that portrait as well as the read one, sometimes better, because they tend to be the more impressive titles.
The part that surprised me when I first understood it is that we are not doing this for other people.
We are doing it for ourselves and the audience is a part of us that has never quite been convinced and that never delivers a final verdict, which is why the evidence has to keep accumulating.
The same jury receives evidence in many other forms and most of them are harder to see because we do not think of them as clutter at all.
When someone asks how we have been and we answer that things have been busy, there's often a small note of relief in the word and sometimes something close to pride.
Busy means our hours have value, that people want them, that we matter enough to be in demand.
The contacts, the invitations, the acquaintances we keep warm without ever quite seeing.
Some of these are real friendships, and some are entries in a ledger, and the ledger is doing the same work the bookshelf does.
Consider a bookshelf for a moment, because objects are the easiest place to see the pattern.
On any bookshelf, there are books that have been read and loved and will be opened again.
There are also books that have never been opened and, if we are honest, never will be.
and the unread books contribute to that portrait as well as the read one, sometimes better, because they tend to be the more impressive titles.
The part that surprised me when I first understood it is that we are not doing this for other people.
We are doing it for ourselves and the audience is a part of us that has never quite been convinced and that never delivers a final verdict, which is why the evidence has to keep accumulating.
The same jury receives evidence in many other forms and most of them are harder to see because we do not think of them as clutter at all.
When someone asks how we have been and we answer that things have been busy, there's often a small note of relief in the word and sometimes something close to pride.
Busy means our hours have value, that people want them, that we matter enough to be in demand.
The contacts, the invitations, the acquaintances we keep warm without ever quite seeing.
Some of these are real friendships, and some are entries in a ledger, and the ledger is doing the same work the bookshelf does.
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