| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: the point of coming to me, and enquiring why I only remained?
ALCIBIADES: That is true.
SOCRATES: The reason was that I loved you for your own sake, whereas other
men love what belongs to you; and your beauty, which is not you, is fading
away, just as your true self is beginning to bloom. And I will never
desert you, if you are not spoiled and deformed by the Athenian people; for
the danger which I most fear is that you will become a lover of the people
and will be spoiled by them. Many a noble Athenian has been ruined in this
way. For the demus of the great-hearted Erechteus is of a fair
countenance, but you should see him naked; wherefore observe the caution
which I give you.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Human Drift by Jack London: NOTHING THAT EVER CAME TO ANYTHING
It was at Quito, the mountain capital of Ecuador, that the
following passage at correspondence took place. Having occasion
to buy a pair of shoes in a shop six feet by eight in size and
with walls three feet thick, I noticed a mangy leopard skin on the
floor. I had no Spanish. The shop-keeper had no English. But I
was an adept at sign language. I wanted to know where I should go
to buy leopard skins. On my scribble-pad I drew the interesting
streets of a city. Then I drew a small shop, which, after much
effort, I persuaded the proprietor into recognising as his shop.
Next, I indicated in my drawing that on the many streets there
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: arresting with thine own hand the king's greatest enemy. (To Silva.) Be
prompt! (To Ferdinand.) Advance to meet him.
(Alva remains some moments alone, pacing the chamber in silence.)
[Enter Egmont.
Egmont. I come to learn the king's commands; to hear what service he
demands from our loyalty, which remains eternally devoted to him.
Alva. He desires, before all, to hear your counsel.
Egmont. Upon what subject? Does Orange come also? I thought to find
him here.
Alva. I regret that he fails us at this important crisis. The king desires your
counsel, your opinion as to the best means of tranquillizing these states.
Egmont |
