| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: but most nations outgrew it.
Now the interesting fact about the yellow branch of the human race is,
not that they had so juvenile a constitution, but that they have it;
that it has persisted practically unchanged from prehistoric ages.
It is certainly surprising in this kaleidoscopic world whose pattern
is constantly changing as time merges one combination of its
elements into another, that on the other side of the globe this set
should have remained the same. Yet in spite of the lapse of years,
in spite of the altered conditions of existence, in spite of an
immense advance in civilization, such a primitive state of society
has continued there to the present day, in all its essentials what
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery: Anne flew up like a rocket.
"Oh, Marilla, isn't it too late?"
"No, it's only two o'clock. They won't be more than well
gathered yet and it'll be an hour before they have tea. Wash
your face and comb your hair and put on your gingham. I'll fill
a basket for you. There's plenty of stuff baked in the house.
And I'll get Jerry to hitch up the sorrel and drive you down to
the picnic ground."
"Oh, Marilla," exclaimed Anne, flying to the washstand. "Five
minutes ago I was so miserable I was wishing I'd never been born
and now I wouldn't change places with an angel!"
Anne of Green Gables |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln: It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . .
we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead,
who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power
to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember,
what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion
to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. . .
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