The Pearl

In John Steinback's novel, "The Pearl" (which I find very irritating because Kino and Juana didn't make good use of their freaking luck) on page 41, line 14:

"For every man in the world functions to the best of his ability, and no one does less than his best, no matter what he might think about it. Quite apart from any reward they might get, from any word of praise, from any promotion, a pearl buyer was a pearl buyer, and the best and happiest pearl buyer was he who bought for the lowest prices."

And it was the pearl buyers who made Kino and Juana's lives miserable. I think they are the most evil people in the novel. If they had not tried to cheat Kino, all would have been well. But noooooo ...

Anyway, what I'm trying to bring across is John Steinback's idea that everyone does his best even though he or she feels it was not the best. But since we are all different, so our abilities are different, thus our "best" is different. For some people, their best is to pass their exams, but for others their best is THE best. Parents who believe in this idea will not cause too much stress on their children because they believe the children are doing their best, but parents who don't believe in this ideal will feel their children need to do more, work harder to attain greater heights.

I think my parents fall in the latter category. But that's fine, I have lots of white hair already, I don't think they'll multiply. No auxin and growth hormones there, just a shortage of melanin and whatnot due to undue stress.....