| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: Peyton Fahrquhar was a well to do planter, of an old and
highly respected Alabama family. Being a slave owner and
like other slave owners a politician, he was naturally an
original secessionist and ardently devoted to the Southern
cause. Circumstances of an imperious nature, which it is
unnecessary to relate here, had prevented him from taking
service with that gallant army which had fought the
disastrous campaigns ending with the fall of Corinth, and he
chafed under the inglorious restraint, longing for the
release of his energies, the larger life of the soldier, the
opportunity for distinction. That opportunity, he felt,
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: the Star.
--"Christ!" he muttered,--"a dance! If that wind whips round
south, there'll be another dance! ... But I guess the Star will
stay." ...
Half an hour might have passed; still the lights flamed calmly,
and the violins trilled, and the perfumed whirl went on ... And
suddenly the wind veered!
Again the Star reeled, and shuddered, and turned, and began to
drag all her anchors. But she now dragged away from the great
building and its lights,--away from the voluptuous thunder of the
grand piano, even at that moment outpouring the great joy of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: saved, he will be saved."
"But here, in this world, what is a Christian?"
"Why," said Peter, "I'm a Christian--we're all Christians."
The stranger looked into the fire; and Peter thought he would change the
subject. "It's curious how like my mother you are; I mean, your ways. She
was always saying to me, 'Don't be too anxious to make money, Peter. Too
much wealth is as bad as too much poverty.' You're very like her."
After a while Peter said, bending over a little towards the stranger, "If
you don't want to make money, what did you come to this land for? No one
comes here for anything else. Are you in with the Portuguese?"
"I am not more with one people than with another," said the stranger. "The
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