| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: decisively down upon Tom's leg and began a journey
over him, his whole heart was glad -- for that meant
that he was going to have a new suit of clothes -- without
the shadow of a doubt a gaudy piratical uniform. Now
a procession of ants appeared, from nowhere in par-
ticular, and went about their labors; one struggled man-
fully by with a dead spider five times as big as itself in
its arms, and lugged it straight up a tree-trunk. A
brown spotted lady-bug climbed the dizzy height of a
grass blade, and Tom bent down close to it and said,
"Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home, your house is on
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: and pray for freedom! But I cannot look my masters boldly in the
face; I still value the poor body; I still set much store on its
preservation whole and sound.
But I can point thee out a free man, that thou mayest be no
more in search of an example. Diogenes was free. How so? Not
because he was of free parentage (for that, indeed, was not the
case), but because he was himself free. He had cast away every
handle whereby slavery might lay hold of him to enslave him, nor
was it possible for any to approach and take hold of him to
enslave him. All things sat loose upon him--all things were to
him attached by but slender ties. Hadst thou siezed upon his
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: But a Banker, engaged at enormous expense,
Had the whole of their cash in his care.
There was also a Beaver, that paced on the deck,
Or would sit making lace in the bow:
And had often (the Bellman said) saved them from wreck,
Though none of the sailors knew how.
There was one who was famed for the number of things
He forgot when he entered the ship:
His umbrella, his watch, all his jewels and rings,
And the clothes he had bought for the trip.
He had forty-two boxes, all carefully packed,
The Hunting of the Snark |
