Cultivating Uselessness

If you don't know about it, one book that I highly recommend is the Tao De Ching, written by some trippy dude, Oh, about 3000 years ago. It is said that the guy, named Lao Tzu, got sick of Chinese society and decided to get away from it all. At the border, a guard recognized him and appealed to him to write down what Mr. Tzu knew for the sake of posterity. From this came a very short book. At least that is the ledgend.
Now if you enjoy conundrums and puzzles, this book is for you. Just about nothing in it makes any sense. Nor should it make sense, as Mr. Sneezy (Tzu-Gesundheit), points out. If it makes sense to the ordinary T.V. watching, money grubbing, stabyouinthebackforabuck guy, it is dellusion.
Most of it goes against the grain for me, but I am staring to get some of it. One of the concepts I just recently figured out. Lao Tzu (bless you) urges us to make ourselves useless to the world. By inference, we are somehow usefull to the world (culture) by living an ordinary life. Lao urges that we become usefull to ourselves instead. That we don't buy into the common belief system and avoid getting hooked by the "fluff" of our society. For me the implication is enormous. I feed something by acting and thinking in a certain way. By going along with the hoopla, I add to it and lose something of myself. It is better to pay attention to something else. Mr. Tzu goes on to enigmatically hint at what that might be.