Books Reading: Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research by John Steinbeck 📚

And then we thought of what they are, and what we are—products of disease and sorrow and hunger and alcoholism. And suppose some all-powerful mind and will should cure our species so that for a number of generations we would be healthy and happy? We are the products of our disease and suffering. These are factors as powerful as other genetic factors. To cure and feed would be to change the species, and the result would be another animal entirely. We wonder if we would be able to tolerate our own species without a history of syphilis and tuberculosis. We don’t know. —John Steinbeck, Log From The Sea Of Cortez