For a friend...

"The Uses of Not"

.

Thirty spokes

meet in the hub.

Where the wheel isn't

is where it's useful.

.

Hollowed out,

clay makes a pot.

Where the pot's not

is where it's useful.

.

Cut doors and windows

to make a room.

Where the room isn't,

there's room for you.

.

So the profit in what is

is in the use of what isn't.

.

-from Ursula K. Le Guin's translation

of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching