The human race is continually searching, searching for the one thing which has eluded generations, but only because they are looking in all the wrong places. It is as if they were to go to a grocery store knowing that they came for something but not remembering what it is. With eyes drifting across the shelf, they glance at the top and at the bottom just in case that one item was tucked away in some recess. Walking through the aisles their cart is filled with all sorts of products, but not one seems to be that for which they came. Upon arriving home they unload their newly acquired goods and enjoy them for a while, but they eventually realize that that one product is still missing.
In John Updike’s Pigeon Feathers