| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: same strength and resoluteness.
One June morning a young man stood at the
gate of the Norwegian graveyard, sharpening
his scythe in strokes unconsciously timed to the
tune he was whistling. He wore a flannel cap
and duck trousers, and the sleeves of his white
flannel shirt were rolled back to the elbow.
When he was satisfied with the edge of his
blade, he slipped the whetstone into his hip
pocket and began to swing his scythe, still
O Pioneers! |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: price. See? I very nearly started the business straight away,
only something happened. My train came along."
"Jolly good ideer," said my uncle. He looked at me. "That really
is an ideer, George," he said.
"Take shavin's, again! You know that poem of Longfellow's, sir,
that sounds exactly like the first declension. What is
it?--'Marr's a maker, men say!'"
My uncle nodded and gurgled some quotation that died away.
'Jolly good poem, George," he said in an aside to me.
"Well, it's about a carpenter and a poetic Victorian child, you
know, and some shavin's. The child made no end out of the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: ridges resounded with his song. They had exaggerated; after all, it was
not so high, nor was the road so steep! A few days, a few weeks, a few
months at most, and then the top! Not one feather only would he pick up;
he would gather all that other men had found--weave the net--capture Truth-
-hold her fast--touch her with his hands--clasp her!
"He laughed in the merry sunshine, and sang loud. Victory was very near.
Nevertheless, after a while the path grew steeper. He needed all his
breath for climbing, and the singing died away. On the right and left rose
huge rocks, devoid of lichen or moss, and in the lava-like earth chasms
yawned. Here and there he saw a sheen of white bones. Now too the path
began to grow less and less marked; then it became a mere trace, with a
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