One of the characters, Samuel, is a wise old farmer, about 1/4 of the way into the book he says something that hit me between the eyes. Samuel is speaking to another character, Adam, when he says, "There's a capacity for appetite that a whole heaven and earth of cake can't satisfy."
What a piercingly true statement! It doesn't take me long to come up with countless examples of how our appetites never quite seem to be satisfied. Look at how we live our lives - always chasing more and more, always thinking that our contentment lies around the next corner or after the next purchase or in the next relationship.
Have you ever gotten exactly what you wanted, only to discover that having falls flat in comparison to wanting?
It seems that in our American culture, we have embraced the idea that happiness can be found in the new, the next, the more, the better. We loyally serve our appetites, but our efforts are in vain because these masters are fickle and insatiable. The truth, as Mr. Steinbeck says, is that the capacity for our appetites is boundless, and if left to these untrained desires, there can never be "enough."
