| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: shortsighted delight at the misery of others, and doubts and
torments had followed, and only the heavens promised peace. Toward
morning all these dreams melted and merged into the chaos and darkness
of unconciousness and oblivion which in the opinion of Napoleon's
doctor, Larrey, was much more likely to end in death than in
convalescence.
"He is a nervous, bilious subject," said Larrey, "and will not
recover."
And Prince Andrew, with others fatally wounded, was left to the care
of the inhabitants of the district.
BOOK FOUR: 1806
War and Peace |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: the king and accused the queen of having allowed her child to be taken
from her by the wild beasts. When the king saw the blood on her apron,
he believed this, fell into such a passion that he ordered a high
tower to be built, in which neither sun nor moon could be seen and had
his wife put into it, and walled up. Here she was to stay for seven
years without meat or drink, and die of hunger. But God sent two
angels from heaven in the shape of white doves, which flew to her
twice a day, and carried her food until the seven years were over.
The cook, however, thought to himself: 'If the child has the power of
wishing, and I am here, he might very easily get me into trouble.' So
he left the palace and went to the boy, who was already big enough to
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: He paused.
"Mind," he began again, lifting one arm from the elbow, the palm
of the hand outwards, so that, with his legs folded before him,
he had the pose of a Buddha preaching in European clothes and without
a lotus-flower--"Mind, none of us would feel exactly like this.
What saves us is efficiency--the devotion to efficiency.
But these chaps were not much account, really. They were no colonists;
their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect.
They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force--
nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength
is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.
Heart of Darkness |
