The Chuang Tzu – The Useless: Can I find gratitude for what appears to be useless?The Chuang Tzu – The Useless: Can I find gratitude for what appears to be useless?
Tao of Our understanding Alcohol Recovery Podcast
A Taoist parable about "the useless" sparks a discussion on how perceived uselessness, overthinking, meetings and community all relate to alcohol recovery. The conversation links spirituality, gratitude and everyday choices to a more grounded and connected sober life.
41:29•20 Oct 2026
Finding Gratitude in the "Useless" on the Sobriety Path
Episode Overview
- Taoist stories, like "The Useless", are used to question ideas about what is valuable in recovery and life.
- Spiritual growth is framed as subtraction – letting go of fear, dishonesty and self-centredness – rather than adding more willpower or beliefs.
- Closed AA meetings, especially those with committed members, can provide deeper support, while other meetings may be better for service and sponsorship.
- Replacing "alcohol" with "thinking" in Big Book readings highlights how overthinking can function like a primary addiction.
- Choosing gratitude and kindness in everyday annoyances, from traffic to broken appliances, is presented as practical recovery in action.
“"If you have no appreciation for what has no use, you cannot begin to talk about what could be used."”
What drives someone to seek a different way of seeing life – and sobriety – right down to whether anything is really useless? This conversation circles around the Chuang Tzu story "The Useless" and how it connects to alcohol recovery, 12-step work, and everyday sanity.
Buddy C, joined by Brian and Drew, starts with a simple but sharp line: "If you have no appreciation for what has no use, you cannot begin to talk about what could be used." From there, they relate Taoist ideas to their experience of a Higher Power, sharing how spirituality became less about adding more beliefs and more about dropping fear, dishonesty and self-centred thinking.
You’ll hear them swap AA war stories about meetings that "feed" them versus meetings where they get to be of service, paper-signers who just want a signature, and how sponsoring often means going where the struggling people actually are. There’s also a funny-but-true riff on overthinkers, with Buddy reading from the Big Book and cheekily replacing "alcohol" with "thinking" to show how the real issue is a "problem thinker" rather than a problem drinker.
Drew brings in community and connection, saying sobriety alone often just becomes abstinence, while real change comes through groups and service.
They talk about tailgaters, traffic jams and broken dishwashers as live examples of whether they’ll react in anger or ask, "How can I be helpful right now?" The story of "the useless" becomes a lens for gratitude – for unseen people who grow our food, for awkward life events that hide blessings, and for painful losses that still carry something to be thankful for.
If you’ve ever wondered whether your so-called "useless" experiences might actually be keeping you grounded, this conversation might nudge you to look again – what could you thank today that you used to curse?
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