| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Arizona Nights by Stewart Edward White: around for my bearings, pick out a landmark a little distance
off, and forget everything but it. Then I'd plod along, knowing
nothing but the sand and shale and slope under my feet, until I'd
reached that landmark. Then I'd clear my mind and pick out
another.
But I couldn't shut out the figure of Schwartz that way. He used
to walk along just ahead of my shoulder. His face was all
twisted up, but I remember thinking at the time it looked more as
if he was worried in his mind than like bodily suffering. The
weight of the gold in his clothes bent his shoulders over.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: traced zigzags upon the blue sky.
Ordinarily, they rested in a field facing the ocean, with Deauville on
their left, and Havre on their right. The sea glittered brightly in
the sun and was as smooth as a mirror, and so calm that they could
scarcely distinguish its murmur; sparrows chirped joyfully and the
immense canopy of heaven spread over it all. Madame Aubain brought out
her sewing, and Virginia amused herself by braiding reeds; Felicite
wove lavender blossoms, while Paul was bored and wished to go home.
Sometimes they crossed the Toucques in a boat, and started to hunt for
sea-shells. The outgoing tide exposed star-fish and sea-urchins, and
the children tried to catch the flakes of foam which the wind blew
A Simple Soul |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Young Forester by Zane Grey: "Ken, I shore am glad to see you," drawled Jim, giving my hand a squeeze
that I thought must break every bone in it.
Though Jim Williams had never been described to me, my first sight of him
fitted my own ideas. He was tall and spare; his weather-beaten face seemed
set like a dark mask; only his eyes moved, and they had a quivering
alertness and a brilliancy that made them hard to look into. He wore a wide
sombrero, a blue flannel shirt with a double row of big buttons, overalls,
top-boots with very high heels, and long spurs. A heavy revolver swung at
his hip, and if I had not already known that Jim Williams had fought
Indians and killed bad men, I should still have seen something that awed me
in the look of him.
The Young Forester |
