| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: No one replied to this, because they found they needed all their
breath for the climb. The stairs had become narrower and Zeb and the
Wizard often had to help Jim pull the buggy from one step to another,
or keep it from jamming against the rocky walls.
At last, however, a dim light appeared ahead of them, which grew
clearer and stronger as they advanced.
"Thank goodness we're nearly there!" panted the little Wizard.
Jim, who was in advance, saw the last stair before him and stuck his
head above the rocky sides of the stairway. Then he halted, ducked
down and began to back up, so that he nearly fell with the buggy onto
the others.
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dreams by Olive Schreiner: God said, "The curtain is thick; they are feasting."
And I said, "But the men who came in last. They saw?"
God said, "They let the curtain fall behind them--and they forget!"
I said, "How came they by their jars of wine?"
God said, "In the treading of the press these are they who came to the top;
they have climbed out over the edge, and filled their jars from below, and
have gone into the house."
And I said, "And if they had fallen as they climbed--?"
God said, "They had been wine."
I stood a way off watching in the sunshine, and I shivered.
God lay in the sunshine watching too.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: they all live in close intercourse, as they have learned the same
things together, and as they lead the same life, they are not
naturally disposed to take one of themselves for a guide, and to
follow him implicitly. Men seldom take the opinion of their
equal, or of a man like themselves, upon trust. Not only is
confidence in the superior attainments of certain individuals
weakened amongst democratic nations, as I have elsewhere
remarked, but the general notion of the intellectual superiority
which any man whatsoever may acquire in relation to the rest of
the community is soon overshadowed. As men grow more like each
other, the doctrine of the equality of the intellect gradually
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