| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell: Day by day, hole by hole, our bearing reins were shortened,
and instead of looking forward with pleasure to having my harness put on,
as I used to do, I began to dread it. Ginger, too, seemed restless,
though she said very little. At last I thought the worst was over;
for several days there was no more shortening, and I determined
to make the best of it and do my duty, though it was now a constant harass
instead of a pleasure; but the worst was not come.
23 A Strike for Liberty
One day my lady came down later than usual, and the silk rustled
more than ever.
"Drive to the Duchess of B----'s," she said, and then after a pause,
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: "Only a picket post half a mile out, on the railroad, and a
single sentinel at this end of the bridge."
"Suppose a man -- a civilian and student of hanging --
should elude the picket post and perhaps get the better of
the sentinel," said Fahrquhar, smiling, "what could he
accomplish?"
The soldier reflected. "I was there a month ago," he
replied. "I observed that the flood of last winter had
lodged a great quantity of driftwood against the wooden pier
at this end of the bridge. It is now dry and would burn like
tinder."
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: securely to the trunk of a poplar or willow that stood there. Sancho
asked him the reason of this sudden dismounting and tying. Don Quixote
made answer, "Thou must know, Sancho, that this bark is plainly, and
without the possibility of any alternative, calling and inviting me to
enter it, and in it go to give aid to some knight or other person of
distinction in need of it, who is no doubt in some sore strait; for
this is the way of the books of chivalry and of the enchanters who
figure and speak in them. When a knight is involved in some difficulty
from which he cannot be delivered save by the hand of another
knight, though they may be at a distance of two or three thousand
leagues or more one from the other, they either take him up on a
Don Quixote |
