Le Guin Daodejing: Chapter 8
[Author’s Note: A kind reminder that all the Gratitude articles based on Ursula Le Guin’s Daodejing appear on Medium first, one verse per week. Find on Medium. All of these articles on Medium have “friend links” that bypass the paywall. As chapters are completed, a compilation by chapter is released here. Your support and any feedback is welcome.]
EASY BY NATURE
True goodness is like water. Water’s good for everything. It doesn’t compete.
It goes right to the loathsome places, and so finds a way.
For a house, the good thing is level ground. In thinking, depth is good. The good of giving is magnanimity; of speaking, honesty; of government, order. The good of work is skill, and of action, timing.
No competition, so no blame.
(Published on Medium July 17, 2026.)
Good Drinking Water
When I tell my story of moving to China in 1997, the usual reaction is: wow, so difficult. In truth it was very difficult, but not for the obvious reasons. Work wasn’t counted in hours or days, but weeks. On 26 days, followed by two days off for the escape to Hong Kong to renew the 28 days tourist visa (business visas were soon available). The office was the dorm; the dorm the office. While we tried to sleep, the other side of the world was sending new orders and finding problems with what you’d done. Too much of everything but quality sleep and nutrition.
I loved it. I’d no idea what to expect pricing furniture in China, but I knew it would take a tough mind. People have mantras, little sayings to repeat that keep us centered. I had one, and this is the honest truth: “I can take anything.” I repeated this over and over, throughout the training period in the US, Taiwan, and finally to Dongguan, China.
EASY BY NATURE
True goodness is like water. Water’s good for everything. It doesn’t compete.
It goes right to the loathsome places, and so finds a way.
For a house, the good thing is level ground. In thinking, depth is good. The good of giving is magnanimity; of speaking, honesty; of government, order. The good of work is skill, and of action, timing.
No competition, so no blame.
Over those first two years many “expats” passed through the region. Every competitor had a buying office, trading houses were setting up pipelines to retailers. Most expats were in and right back out. A few made it six months, a year. What made the difference? Longevity was highly correlated with stubbornness. Not only, but the rest is a story for another day.
So seems I’d chosen wisely (😉). Yet I was experiencing the difference between “withstanding” and “acceptance”. It is the gulf between rocks and water. Rocks stand against. Rocks cannot yield, while water flows around obstacles, rises over obstacles, floods the banks and reaches for new ground. The rock remains but gets worn down. Though for a long time one cannot tell the difference. Inevitably the rocks breaks.
Now I question what there is to withstand at all. Now I think of the rock as fearful of the future, frozen in place; water as acceptance, going along where the contours of the future take it. But in the spirit of gratefulness, and understanding the past is the past, I am presented with another chance to practice acceptance.
I’m grateful for the hard-headedness that served me so well.
(Published on Medium July 23, 2026.)
Where Few Tread
Some few chapters and verse into this gratitude project, I’ve noticed a few things. When I intentionally settle down to think of an idea for a verse, inspiration never comes as quickly as when I’m doing anything later in the day… or the next day. The first idea that sparks usually gets the nod. Where do these ideas come from? Arising out of my current mood, surfaced by a current struggle or a memory. Today is a memory and a current struggle.
EASY BY NATURE
True goodness is like water. Water’s good for everything. It doesn’t compete.
It goes right to the loathsome places, and so finds a way.
For a house, the good thing is level ground. In thinking, depth is good. The good of giving is magnanimity; of speaking, honesty; of government, order. The good of work is skill, and of action, timing.
No competition, so no blame.
This is another “work and career” screed. I was good, very good, at my sourcing job. Yes, here we go again, with my “oh boy was I special”. Well I’ll tell you one of the secrets why. If you want to be a successful buyer, being able to match place, timing, and capability is essential. My responsibility was deciding which suppliers to give furniture designs to. These were highly distinctive designs, unique in materials and skills necessary to make correctly. Not every time, but most of the time, we matched one product to one supplier. Trying to coordinate two suppliers making the same product cost more than the payoff. So evaluating a suppliers ability and interest mattered; an art and a skill. Remember, suppliers had other customers arguing for their ear too.
I noticed something in my competitors and peers. Often they would fool themselves into believing they could bully or push an agreement through based on unrealistic schedules and assessments of proficiency. They were allowed to believe this because the suppliers would agree to almost anything, say nearly anything, if they thought the buyer would give them the orders. I saw this because I lived there and experienced the aftermath.
In short, don’t ask people to do things they cannot do.
I learned that it was my responsibility, not theirs, to know and accept the outcome. More often than not, I placed products where the outcome was best, and better than that, I knew when we were getting into short term trouble for a long term reward.
In our personal lives, we constantly ask people for things they are incapable of delivering, like those suppliers; but unlike them, the people close to us are sincere, but often blind to their limits. Disappointment and pain is the result. It could be an uncle, a grandmother, a brother, a spouse, its not like you can “drop them”, as we liked to say about suppliers. And we want them to see so badly, grow as a person, we can help them, don’t they see? But they don’t see. A loathsome place to be. The way through is to accept the people we love for who they are, not just in part. It is my responsibility to try.
What am I grateful for? This is a hard one. Today, it is hard to find gratitude.
I’m grateful that at least I know the answer, even though I cannot (yet) accept it.
(Published on Medium August 9, 2026.)
A Certain Point of View
The writing process for me is one of feast or famine. In describing my feelings on this, it dawns on me how often I come to a bifurcation of my thinking; I’m of two minds about everything. Knowing that to sustain anything, a process is needed, I have lists and spreadsheets, publishing dates and times and places for writing. But I also know, and this by frustrating experience, that writing without flow or a strong thought to follow is an uphill battle.
Discipline does not spontaneously conjure inspiration. It is in the roiling meeting of these two, the discipline and the catalyst that inspires a burst of creativity. The more rigid the discipline, the more quick to burn out. Yet waiting on lightning to strike is a fool’s game. We have to strike rocks together to create a spark.
EASY BY NATURE
True goodness is like water. Water’s good for everything. It doesn’t compete.
It goes right to the loathsome places, and so finds a way.
For a house, the good thing is level ground. In thinking, depth is good. The good of giving is magnanimity; of speaking, honesty; of government, order. The good of work is skill, and of action, timing.
No competition, so no blame.
This verse was on my mind before bed, and I intended to work on notes while walking in the morning. Which didn’t happen, my attention drifting to other distractions. I’m thinking, what is there to say? Thoughtfulness is good… timing is everything as they say. Must I find some way of looking that nobody has thought of? Always looking for the contrarian stance, critiquing what others would take for granted.
That’s me again, being of two minds, and finding myself again in the churning storm. I like order, yet my instinct is to champion chaos. I see the chaos and anarchy in Laozi’s words. Saying what we mean is harrowing enough at the best of times. Now think about his times, really think on it. Whether “his” or “theirs” matters not a bit.
I’m grateful for this chance to say anything that means something to me.
(Published on Medium August 7, 2026.)
In the olden times, before the phones, many of us found distraction and entertainment from reading books printed on paper. I went to Hong Kong to get mine, to Page One, a great bookstore in Tsim Tsa Shui (RIP). That was a great bookstore.
I read widely but looking back spent more time than necessary around understanding, managing, and harnessing “improvement”. As an aside, do you know every company outside of Toyota that talks about Lean Manufacturing and “The Toyota Way” is blowing smoke, even lying to themselves? The secret to the Kaizen System is: Toyota never let an employee go; jobs were for life. That’s the real secret to “continuous improvement”. As long as shareholders and labour are in competition, there cannot be trust. Took a lot of books, factory visits, and project experience to uncover that truth.
EASY BY NATURE
True goodness is like water. Water’s good for everything. It doesn’t compete.
It goes right to the loathsome places, and so finds a way.
For a house, the good thing is level ground. In thinking, depth is good. The good of giving is magnanimity; of speaking, honesty; of government, order. The good of work is skill, and of action, timing.
No competition, so no blame.
Page One is on my mind because of a book I picked up there, 2005 Freakonomics, concerned with unexpected results about life and society. It doesn’t get talked about much anymore. The one thing I remember is the assertion that — statistically — the efforts we make as parents to guide our children’s values and behaviour, to pay for education, all the stuff we agonize over as parents, has statistically zero effect on the outcomes of our children. You can call bullshit; I did too. As it turns out, our influence is front loaded at the beginning, through our gift of DNA.
Now a Dad myself, I routinely do anything for our boys, even though I have this truth always in mind. They go to the best schools we can afford, and we “push” them to work hard; yes, we put them under pressure. But isn’t their destiny already set? Well, no, because the Big Population result that nothing we do matters depends on us doing everything that we can: working hard, taking our health, relationships, and business seriously to the best of our abilities. Sure, we are tossed about on the waves of chaos, but the Game of Life is a game we have to play. Another spot where determinism and chaos meet.
I’m grateful for the urge and necessity to compete, and that the outcome was never going to, and will never, depend on us.
[Author’s Note: This book can be enjoyed by and benefit everyone. Find it on Amazon here.]
[Author’s Note: Thank you for taking the time to visit. All pictures were taken by the author or family member, unless otherwise noted.]