| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: The other fellows think he's got a touch of fever on, caught wandering
about in the long grass that day. But I don't think it's that; I think
it's being alone in the veld that's got hold of him. Man, have you ever
been out like that, alone in the veld, night and day, and not a soul to
speak to? I have; and I tell you, if I'd been left there three days longer
I'd have gone mad or turned religious. Man, it's the nights, with the
stars up above you, and the dead still all around. And you think, and
think, and think! You remember all kinds of things you've never thought of
for years and years. I used to talk to myself at last, and make believe it
was another man. I was out seven days: and he was only out one night.
But I think it's the loneliness that got hold of him. Man, those stars are
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: was a felicity in the flow of the first four words,
in the arrangement of "My very dear Fanny," which she
could have looked at for ever.
Having regulated her thoughts and comforted her feelings
by this happy mixture of reason and weakness, she was able
in due time to go down and resume her usual employments
near her aunt Bertram, and pay her the usual observances
without any apparent want of spirits.
Thursday, predestined to hope and enjoyment, came; and opened
with more kindness to Fanny than such self-willed,
unmanageable days often volunteer, for soon after breakfast
Mansfield Park |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: had the cards that night I marked every one in every deck. That was
labor. And then trade and commerce had their innings, and the bread I
had cast upon the waters began to come back in the form of cottage
pudding with wine sauce.
"Of course I was among the first to buy chips at Bill Bassett's game.
He had bought the only cards there was to be had in town; and I knew
the back of every one of them better than I know the back of my head
when the barber shows me my haircut in the two mirrors.
"When the game closed I had the five thousand and a few odd dollars,
and all Bill Bassett had was the wanderlust and a black cat he had
bought for a mascot. Bill shook hands with me when I left.
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