| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: It was a gigantic dugong!
Ned Land looked eagerly. His eyes shone with covetousness at
the sight of the animal. His hand seemed ready to harpoon it.
One would have thought he was awaiting the moment to throw himself
into the sea and attack it in its element.
At this instant Captain Nemo appeared on the platform.
He saw the dugong, understood the Canadian's attitude, and,
addressing him, said:
"If you held a harpoon just now, Master Land, would it not burn your hand?"
"Just so, sir."
"And you would not be sorry to go back, for one day, to your trade
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: lady was about to stop laughing.
``So that is it?'' asked the lady, and she seemed about to begin
laughing again.
``Yes, I am a Mama, and I have three little girls about as funny as
you are.''
Another time a lady passed by the cabin where Bessie Bell stood
leaning against the little fluted white post of the gallery, and
said:
``Good morning, Bessie Bell. I am Alice's Mama.''
That made things so simple, thought Bessie Bell. This lady was a
Mama. And she was Alice's Mama.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: surrender for so fair a land. What we want are unpractical people
who see beyond the moment, and think beyond the day. Those who try
to lead the people can only do so by following the mob. It is
through the voice of one crying in the wilderness that the ways of
the gods must be prepared.
But perhaps you think that in beholding for the mere joy of
beholding, and contemplating for the sake of contemplation, there
is something that is egotistic. If you think so, do not say so.
It takes a thoroughly selfish age, like our own, to deify self-
sacrifice. It takes a thoroughly grasping age, such as that in
which we live, to set above the fine intellectual virtues, those
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