[thinktwice]

Interesting -- John Steinbeck is also among my favorite authors.

Meanwhile, regarding this thread, I recall the quotation:

"A man may well bring a horse to the water, but he cannot make him drinke without he will." -- Proverbs, Part I, Chapter XI

[fuzzycat]

You got that right. And Paul had no trouble bringing the "horses" to his religion in Rome, they drank freely. Yet, some eventually saw (Iraneus,Constantine)the usefullness in co-opting this religious fervor. What happened after that was "iconoclastic dogma" not what Jesus tried to explain to the aspostles and to the rest who would seek. Speaking of authors and horses. My favorite line of all time was from Swift's "Gulliver's Travels". When Gulliver went to the land of Brobdingnag he was told something by the intelligent horse inhabitants " Man is a stinking yahoo". True then, true now.