Going Through The Motions

Samuel leaned over the basket and put his finger against the small palm of one of the twins and the fingers closed and held on. "I guess the last bad habit a man will give up is advising."

"I don't want advice."

"Nobody does. It's a giver's present. Go through the motions, Adam."

"What motions?"

"Act out being alive, like a play. And after a while, a long while, it will be true."

"Why should I?" Adam asked.

Samuel was looking at the twins. "You're going to pass something down no matter what you do or if you do nothing. Even if you let yourself go fallow, the weeds will grow and the brambles. Something will grow."

Adam did not asnwer, and Samuel stood up. "I'll be back," he said. "I'll be back again and agian. Go through the motions, Adam."

John Steinbeck, East of Eden

I'm stuggling hard to go through the motions.