| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum: meal was over, Aunt Em whispered to Dorothy:
"That may have been magic food, my dear, and for that reason perhaps
it won't be very nourishing; but I'm willing to say it tasted as good
as anything I ever et." Then she added, in a louder voice: "Who's
going to do the dishes?"
"No one, madam," answered the Wizard. "The dishes have 'done' themselves."
"La sakes!" ejaculated the good lady, holding up her hands in
amazement. For, sure enough, when she looked at the dishes they had a
moment before left upon the table, she found them all washed and dried
and piled up into neat stacks.
15. How Dorothy Happened to Get Lost
The Emerald City of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: infesting some ponds about Berne, and the Bishop of Lausanne,
instructed by the faculty of Heidelberg University, directed that some
of "the aquatic worms" be brought before the local magistracy. This
was done and the leeches, both present and absent, were ordered to
leave the places that they had infested within three days on pain of
incurring "the malediction of God." In the voluminous records of this
_cause celebre_ nothing is found to show whether the offenders braved
the punishment, or departed forthwith out of that inhospitable
jurisdiction.
TRICHINOSIS, n. The pig's reply to proponents of porcophagy.
Moses Mendlessohn having fallen ill sent for a Christian
The Devil's Dictionary |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Desert Gold by Zane Grey: loneliness until that moment.
"George, how I ever drifted down here I don't know. I didn't
exactly quarrel with the governor. But--damn it, Dad hurt
me--shamed me, and I dug out for the West. It was this way.
After leaving college I tried to please him by tackling one thing
after another that he set me to do. On the square, I had no head
for business. I made a mess of everything. The governor got sore.
He kept ramming the harpoon into me till I just couldn't stand it.
What little ability I possessed deserted me when I got my back up,
and there you are. Dad and I had a rather uncomfortable half hour.
When I quit--when I told him straight out that I was going West to
Desert Gold |
