Member-only story
Taoist Take on Hate

Along one strange branch of another odd fluke of matter, we feel it.
This comes at a price.
The sights and sounds and smells of Earth are too much to bear in a blip of a life. We crave experience and resent what we can’t know. To Hell with mortality! Revel in the promise of Heaven.
Only, it isn’t promised and you have to earn it. Build a family. Win wars and cure diseases. Breathe each day the fallout. For all we seek to behold, the edges are darker for it.
What horror is balance!
Time is consumption. The desperate split truth into blessings and curses. The future is bloody and our hearts are faint and ideas betray us. Anything unaccounted for must find its spot in the pattern fast or face corrective action.
Anybody unusual…
To shed some light on our darkest tendencies, I examine here Chapters 1–3 of the ancient Chinese text Tao Te Ching, attributed to Lao Zi (Lao Tzu) circa 4th century BCE. There is so much to say about each chapter I must save the rest for future explorations.
Besides spellchecking and confirming the date on Wikipedia, my only source is the Tao Te Ching itself. Specifically, I reference Stephen Mitchell’s 1988 translation. I’m…