Thursday Thought – On Steinbeck’s Birthday

Note: Each Thursday I will post a little something to inspire us to finish the week strong. These Thursday Thoughts will be a quote, poem, piece of music, artwork, or inspirational video.  Congratulations, you made it over the hump and let’s finish the week together.

A sign of our digital times … we are reminded of important dates by the Google Doodle of the day.   Today’s doodle reminds us of John Steinbeck’s birthday, born 112 years ago.

Damn, I love John Steinbeck.

Of all his great books leading to the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize, I think of a seemingly simple Steinbeck book, Travels with Charley: In Search of America.  I wrote a post inspired by this book over a year ago and to date, I have not finished the book.  It is the story of an older John Steinbeck traveling with his trusted dog, Charley, in search of the true and real America.  The thematic thread found throughout his stories.

The book is only 181 pages long and yet it sits in my unfinished book pile.  When I pick it up and begin to read, inevitably I go backwards and reread passages.  His writing is that good.  I progress slowly and still I have not reached the last page.  I do not want the journey to end.  I am in that truck with John and Charley searching.  The road has no end.

“I knew that ten or twelve thousand miles driving a truck, alone and unattended, over every kind of road, would be hard work, but to me it represented the antidote for the poison of the professional sick man. And in my own life I am not willing to trade quality for quantity.  If this projected journey should prove too much then it was time to go anyway.  I see too many men delay their exits with a sickly, slow reluctance to leave the stage.  It’s bad theater as well as bad living.”