Today's Stichomancy for Ricky Martin

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Inaugural Address by John F. Kennedy:

though embattled we are. . .but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle. . .year in and year out, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation. . .a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny. . .poverty. . .disease. . .and war itself. Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance. . .North and South. . . East and West. . .that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger; I do not shrink from this responsibility. . .I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation.

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Tanach:

Proverbs 17: 20 He that hath a froward heart findeth no good; and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into evil.

Proverbs 17: 21 He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow; and the father of a churl hath no joy.

Proverbs 17: 22 A merry heart is a good medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

Proverbs 17: 23 A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom, to pervert the ways of justice.

Proverbs 17: 24 Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.

Proverbs 17: 25 A foolish son is vexation to his father, and bitterness to her that bore him.

Proverbs 17: 26 To punish also the righteous is not good, nor to strike the noble for their uprightness.

Proverbs 17: 27 He that spareth his words hath knowledge; and he that husbandeth his spirit is a man of discernment.

Proverbs 17: 28 Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise; and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed as a man of understanding.

Proverbs 18: 1 He that separateth himself seeketh his own desire, and snarlest against all sound wisdom.

Proverbs 18: 2 A fool hath no delight in understanding, but only that his heart may lay itself bare.

The Tanach

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator:

But come now, give me an answer to this question. Are not certain things useful to the builder when he is building a house?

CRITIAS: They are.

SOCRATES: And would you say that those things are useful which are employed in house building,--stones and bricks and beams and the like, and also the instruments with which the builder built the house, the beams and stones which they provided, and again the instruments by which these were obtained?

CRITIAS: It seems to me that they are all useful for building.

SOCRATES: And is it not true of every art, that not only the materials but the instruments by which we procure them and without which the work could

The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau:

at haying in a neighboring field, whither he went every day, and would not be back till noon; so he bade me good-day, saying that he doubted if he should see me again. When I came out of prison -- for some one interfered, and paid that tax -- I did not perceive that great changes had taken place on the common, such as he observed who went in a youth and emerged a tottering and gray-headed man; and yet a change had to my eyes come over the scene -- the town, and State, and country -- greater than any that mere time could effect. I saw yet more distinctly the State in which I lived. I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends; that their

Walden