I’d wandered over to This Post, Are You a Christian Hipster?  And scanning his blog page, and down the right hand column where he lists the artists and thinkers who have shaped him, I came across…

In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost
layers of frailty men want to be good
and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their
vices are attempted short cuts to love.
When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents
and influence and genius, if he dies unloved
his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror.

-John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Yeah.  This.

What Steinbeck wrote about Sinclair Lewis in Travels With Charlie has haunted me ever since I read it back when I was a kid.  It was like a premonition.  I’ve been afraid of it ever since.  But no use being afraid of your fate…

[Update…]  He’s a Proposition 8 supporter.  I guess it’s still hip to be a bigot.  Hating your gay neighbor must be that 11th commandment I keep hearing about…