The real sting here isn't that control is impossible—most of us know that already—but that *expecting* control is what damages the thing itself. Steinbeck suggests that the moment you board a journey or a marriage believing you're the captain, you've already begun to fail it. A marriage partner who treats disagreements as problems to solve (rather than conversations to navigate together) finds their spouse becoming an obstacle instead of a companion, much the way a rigid traveler who insists on sticking to an outdated map misses the whole point of going anywhere at all. The wisdom isn't resignation; it's recognizing that surrender to partnership—to being surprised, adjusted by, even occasionally lost with another person or place—is what makes either worthwhile.