| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Mother by Owen Wister: was then twenty-one; and though I never despaired to the extent of
believing that years would fail to increase my value to the firm by a
single cent, still, for what could I hope? If my salary were there and
then to be doubled, what kind of support was twelve hundred dollars to
offer Ethel, with her dresses, and her dinners, and her father's
carriage? For two years I was wretchedly unhappy beneath the many hours
of gaiety that came to me, as to every young man."
"Those two years we could have been in Michigan," said Ethel, "had you
understood."
"I know. But understanding, I believe that I should do the same again. At
the office, when not busy, I wrote more poetry, and began also to write
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: never meant to hurt Marie."
Frank smiled at her queerly. His eyes filled
slowly with tears. "You know, I most forgit
dat woman's name. She ain't got no name for
me no more. I never hate my wife, but dat
woman what make me do dat-- Honest to
God, but I hate her! I no man to fight. I don'
want to kill no boy and no woman. I not care
how many men she take under dat tree. I no
care for not'ing but dat fine boy I kill, Alexan-
O Pioneers! |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: giving more than she received. This mutual exchange of happiness which
each lavished upon the other, put the mainspring of her life visibly
outside of her personality, and filled her words, her looks, her
actions, with an ever-growing love. Gratitude fertilized and varied
the life of each heart; and the certainty of being all in all to one
another excluded the paltry things of existence, while it magnified
the smallest accessories.
The deformed woman whom her husband thinks straight, the lame woman
whom he would not have otherwise, the old woman who seems ever young--
are they not the happiest creatures of the feminine world? Can human
passion go beyond it? The glory of a woman is to be adored for a
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