#usefulness

[guashjam]

I have a lot of old stories, drafts, and sketches that will only exist on my phone or computer. But among these texts, sometimes I come across really interesting lines or plot twists that I want to share with people. So these drafts become the source of the texts I publish, and that's great. Even if the whole story remains in the shadows, part of it lives on in the new story. And that helps when a new idea just doesn't come to mind😌

[thepersonalwords]

A lamp cannot play the role of the Sun and the Sun cannot play the role of a lamp.

Amit Kalantri

[cmweller]

Challenge #04653-L269: Gold Turned to Dross

In the hilly forests of one of the more Tax-Happy Kingdoms a rogue has arisen who steals from the King’s Tax-Collectors and gives to the poor. Yet, more observant folks have noticed that this thief seems to be keeping most of the pilfered wealth. Perhaps Wraithvine (alone or with someone) can help set this would be Robin Hood straight? -- Deathshead419

The castle at the heart of Drichithia was a beautiful crown atop a small mountain, allowing those resident to see sweeping landscapes and picturesque views. Each suite within is a work of art. The ballrooms and gathering halls the talk of all its neighbours.

There's just that persistent bandit problem spoiling everything.

The worst, according to Pyrechmades Rex, was a band encamped somewhere along the picturesque hill road on approach to his castle. There, nobles and tax collectors alike were waylaid for any and all valuables they had on them. Co-incidentally, the copper and silver reappeared in the charity coffers all around the realm.

[Check the source for the rest of the story]

[gennsoup]

The cat may seem inclined to do nothing but lick her fur but we would soon be overrun by mice if we hanged her for vanity . . .

Sjón, From the Mouth of the Whale

[wordsoftheheartandsoul]

For the one who has never come in first place: Your importance, your worth, your usefulness is not positioned based on where others are or what they are doing. You are not above anyone else. You are not beneath them either. Your value can never, ever be ranked.

Morgan Harper Nichols - Storyteller

[deedsandcreeds]

“The liberal arts are often distinguished from what are called the servile arts. While the word “servile” is a bit loaded in our day, here it simply means an art or practice that aims at getting us something useful. We might substitute the less provocative term “practical” for servile. The liberal arts, however, are pursued because they are good in and of themselves. If the city comes into being for the sake of mere life but has as its end the good life, as Aristotle argues, then we can make a similar distinction regarding these two arts: the practical arts exist for the sake of mere life, and the liberal arts for the good life. We might say that liberal education helps us not to live, but to live well. Story and narrative, what we sometimes call the humanities, are not the whole of the liberal arts, but they do seem to be at the core. Liberal education is like people: valuable even when it is useless.”

Jon D. Schaff, “Nadya Williams and the Good News” (a review of Williams’s book “Mothers, Children, and the Body Politic: Ancient Christianity and the Recovery of Human Dignity”)

[philosophybits]

The recognition and the confession of truth is connected, not with usefulness and profit, but with risk and danger....

Nikolai Berdyaev, The Beginning and the End