Book Report: Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck

John and I are buddies now.  I believe it would be difficult for anyone to spend time with the man and not feel the same way.  His way of seeing the world is friendly and genuine.  His company is comfortable.

John describes a boat trip.  I don't recall if he or one of his shipmates organized the trip.   I suspect he was invited along to document the whole thing.  He is a legendary writer, after-all.

They started in California, and they motored to Cabo.  Then they started collecting animals at low tide from numerous beaches and rocky shores for science.  They kept anemones, starfish, regular fish, clams...for science.  They observed Native American and Mexican culture along the Baja Peninsula.  The dinghy outboard sucked.  In summary, the book went on about a bunch of guys on a boat poking around in tidal pools enjoying nature.  In 1940. 

During the narrative, John conveyed the idea of teleological thinking.  It's a difficult word to say, but the concept is relevant to the pursuit of happiness.

The internet says teleological relates to the explanation of phenomena in terms of the purpose they serve rather than of the cause by which they arise.  Well, who really knows the purpose anything serves, right?  Is a knife for killing or cooking?  That's up to the holder!  One could observe that a chef's knife works great for steaks and salads, and a triangular bayonet works splendidly for bloodshed, but these observations don't impose purpose.

Ok, maybe the gory examples aren't for you.  Imagine yourself swimming among thousands of fish, and you observe they all swim in a school.  Spook a part of the school and they swim in concert.  One might think, "They swim that way to avoid predation."  That sounds pretty good, but who cares?  It's better to think, "They swim that way, and it's amazing...freaky...mesmerizing!"  The former is teleological, and  discourages further observation, but the latter encourages more wonder exploration and happiness.  

To me, John exposed something pretty cool:

Purpose doesn't matter.  It's not real.  Purpose is not part of reality.

Consider a situation when you're hanging out with someone, and they're content watching the TV.  Instead of saying, "You should do something, meet people, see things"  or more directly "you shouldn't waste your time sitting on your ass watching the boob-tube"  maybe it would be better to ask "what is your favourite show?  Do you spend a lot of time watching TV? (this one is edgy)  What are the things that you like to do?  What do you like to do when you're not watching TV?  The former assumes others have a purpose (which is imaginary).  The latter probes reality.