the supreme virtue

Can you coax your mind from its wandering
and keep to the original oneness?
Can you let your body become
supple as a newborn child's?
Can you cleanse your inner vision
until you see nothing but the light?
Can you love people and lead them
without imposing your will?
Can you deal with the most vital matters
by letting events take their course?
Can you step back from your own mind
and thus understand all things?

Giving birth and nourishing,
having without possessing,
acting with no expectations,
leading and not trying to control:
this is the supreme virtue.
-- Stephen Mitchell, Chapter 10, Tao Te Ching

We were observing a construction site.

Lao Tzu walked up to the chain link fence and began shaking it.

"Let me out! Let me out!" he began yelling.

"You are out!" shouted a construction worker.

"Let me in! Let me in!" yelled Lao Tzu.

Jesus said, "When you make the inside as the outside and the outside as the inside, you are in the Kingdom."

All walls collapsed within my mind.

"Free," said Lao Tzu.

"And expensive," said Jesus. "It costs you everything."

We walked on.

Lao Tzu began singing "Don't Fence Me In."

I laughed.

I don't know what I'm going to do with these guys.