| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: any further advice which you may have to offer. Will you tell me by what
words or actions I may become endeared to my love?
That is not easy to determine, I said; but if you will bring your love to
me, and will let me talk with him, I may perhaps be able to show you how to
converse with him, instead of singing and reciting in the fashion of which
you are accused.
There will be no difficulty in bringing him, he replied; if you will only
go with Ctesippus into the Palaestra, and sit down and talk, I believe that
he will come of his own accord; for he is fond of listening, Socrates. And
as this is the festival of the Hermaea, the young men and boys are all
together, and there is no separation between them. He will be sure to
Lysis |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: snoring. The air is full of smells and stuffiness. Iona looks at
the sleeping figures, scratches himself, and regrets that he has
come home so early. . . .
"I have not earned enough to pay for the oats, even," he thinks.
"That's why I am so miserable. A man who knows how to do his
work, . . . who has had enough to eat, and whose horse has had
enough to eat, is always at ease. . . ."
In one of the corners a young cabman gets up, clears his throat
sleepily, and makes for the water-bucket.
"Want a drink?" Iona asks him.
"Seems so."
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: for it is through the air. Dear Ripple, do not go, for you can
never reach that distant place: some harm most surely will befall;
and then how shall we live, without our dearest, gentlest Spirit?
Stay here with us in your own pleasant home, and think more of this,
for I can never let you go."
But Ripple would not break the promise she had made, and besought
so earnestly, and with such pleading words, that the Queen at last
with sorrow gave consent, and Ripple joyfully prepared to go. She,
with her sister Spirits, built up a tomb of delicate, bright-colored
shells, wherein the child might lie, till she should come to wake him
into life; then, praying them to watch most faithfully above it,
Flower Fables |
