| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum: to glance at her Magic Picture.
This was one of the most important treasures in all the Land of Oz.
It was a large picture, set in a beautiful gold frame, and it hung
in a prominent place upon a wall of Ozma's private room.
Usually this picture seemed merely a country scene, but whenever
Ozma looked at it and wished to know what any of her friends or
acquaintances were doing, the magic of this wonderful picture was
straightway disclosed. For the country scene would gradually fade
away and in its place would appear the likeness of the person or
persons Ozma might wish to see, surrounded by the actual scenes in
which they were then placed. In this way the Princess could view any
The Emerald City of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: some length in these pages): J'ai vecu. I have existed, obscure
among the wonders and terrors of my time, as the Abbe Sieyes, the
original utterer of the quoted words, had managed to exist
through the violences, the crimes, and the enthusiasms of the
French Revolution. J'ai vecu, as I apprehend most of us manage
to exist, missing all along the varied forms of destruction by a
hair's-breadth, saving my body, that's clear, and perhaps my soul
also, but not without some damage here and there to the fine edge
of my conscience, that heirloom of the ages, of the race, of the
group, of the family, colourable and plastic, fashioned by the
words, the looks, the acts, and even by the silences and
A Personal Record |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: The girl lifted her friend in her arms and exclaimed:
"Oh, Billina! how dreadful you look. You've lost a lot of feathers,
and one of your eyes is nearly pecked out, and your comb is bleeding!"
"That's nothing," said Billina. "Just look at the speckled rooster!
Didn't I do him up brown?"
Dorothy shook her head.
"I don't 'prove of this, at all," she said, carrying Billina away
toward the palace. "It isn't a good thing for you to 'sociate with
those common chickens. They would soon spoil your good manners, and
you wouldn't be respec'able any more."
"I didn't ask to associate with them," replied Billina. "It is that
Ozma of Oz |
