| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from 1492 by Mary Johntson: maze of Santa Fe. That night I slept with minstrels
and jugglers, and at sunrise slipped out of Cordova gate
with muleteers. They were for Cordova and I meant to go to
Malaga. I meant to find there a ship, maybe for Africa,
maybe for Italy, though in Italy, too, sits the Inquisition.
But who knows what it is that turns a man, unless we call
it his Genius, unless we call it God? I let the muleteers
pass me on the road to Cordova, let them dwindle in the
distance. And still I walked and did not turn back and
find the Malaga road. It was as though I were on the sea,
and my bark, was hanging in a calm, waiting for a wind to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: matrons brought their stiff robes of red and yellow
satin, the girls as many flowered silks and lawns,
mantillas and rebosos, as the family carretas would
hold. The square of the Presidio was crowded
from morning until midnight with the spirited
horses of the country, prancing impatiently under
the heavy Mexican saddle, heavier with silver, made
a trifle more endurable by the blanket of velvet or
cloth. No Californian walked a dozen rods when
he had a horse to carry him.
But the horses were not always champing in the
 Rezanov |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: go with Ctesippus into the Palaestra, and sit down and talk, I believe that
he will come of his own accord; for he is fond of listening, Socrates. And
as this is the festival of the Hermaea, the young men and boys are all
together, and there is no separation between them. He will be sure to
come: but if he does not, Ctesippus with whom he is familiar, and whose
relation Menexenus is his great friend, shall call him.
That will be the way, I said. Thereupon I led Ctesippus into the
Palaestra, and the rest followed.
Upon entering we found that the boys had just been sacrificing; and this
part of the festival was nearly at an end. They were all in their white
array, and games at dice were going on among them. Most of them were in
 Lysis |