"I got no God," he said.
"You got a God. Don’t make no difference if you don’ know what he looks like." The preacher bowed his head. She watched him apprehensively. And when he raised his head again she looked relieved. "That’s good," she said. "That’s what I needed. Somebody close enough – to pray."
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 18. Sairy Wilson, whose health is deteriorating, has asked Casy for a prayer. He tells her that his prayers are no good and he has no god. But she knows that while Casy is not traditionally religious, he is very spiritual. After he says a silent prayer Sairy reveals that what she wanted was human closeness. Her desire to share a prayful moment with another human being while near the point of death echoes what Emerson called the "Over-Soul." This is the idea that all human beings are united as part of the one universal soul.