| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: our lives and fortunes. But, then, he was always a great king, fit
to rule over the great waters where, strictly speaking, a man would
have no business whatever but for his audacity.
The audacious should not complain. A mere trader ought not to
grumble at the tolls levied by a mighty king. His mightiness was
sometimes very overwhelming; but even when you had to defy him
openly, as on the banks of the Agulhas homeward bound from the East
Indies, or on the outward passage round the Horn, he struck at you
fairly his stinging blows (full in the face, too), and it was your
business not to get too much staggered. And, after all, if you
showed anything of a countenance, the good-natured barbarian would
The Mirror of the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Love Songs by Sara Teasdale: The Lamp
If I can bear your love like a lamp before me,
When I go down the long steep Road of Darkness,
I shall not fear the everlasting shadows,
Nor cry in terror.
If I can find out God, then I shall find Him,
If none can find Him, then I shall sleep soundly,
Knowing how well on earth your love sufficed me,
A lamp in darkness.
IV
A November Night
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: This had been brought in case we found some cave system with air
quiet enough to allow such a rapid and easy method in place of
the usual rock-chipping method of trail blazing.
Walking cautiously
downhill over the crusted snow toward the stupendous stone labyrinth
that loomed against the opalescent west, we felt almost as keen
a sense of imminent marvels as we had felt on approaching the
unfathomed mountain pass four hours previously. True, we had become
visually familiar with the incredible secret concealed by the
barrier peaks; yet the prospect of actually entering primordial
walls reared by conscious beings perhaps millions of years ago
At the Mountains of Madness |
