On loss, light, and Steinbeck's final work

"It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone."
John Steinbeck
The Winter of Our Discontent

I didn't appreciate Steinbeck as much in high school, when I first studied his work, as I do now. Another sign of the inevitable creep of time, I suppose. And yet here I find myself slowly nodding in agreement: I'd rather have and lose than never have in the first place.