| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum: side pocket. When he lighted the match the Ork gave a
startled jump and eyed the flame suspiciously; but
Cap'n Bill proceeded to light the candle and the action
interested the Ork very much.
"Light," it said, somewhat nervously, "is valuable in
a hole of this sort. The candle is not dangerous, I
hope?"
"Sometimes it burns your fingers," answered Trot,
"but that's about the worst it can do -- 'cept to blow
out when you don't want it to."
Cap'n Bill shielded the flame with his hand and
The Scarecrow of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: taking risks. There were moments when, by an irresistible impulse,
I found myself catching them up and pressing them to my heart.
As soon as I had done so I used to say to myself:
"What will they think of that? Doesn't it betray too much?"
It would have been easy to get into a sad, wild tangle about how
much I might betray; but the real account, I feel, of the hours
of peace that I could still enjoy was that the immediate
charm of my companions was a beguilement still effective
even under the shadow of the possibility that it was studied.
For if it occurred to me that I might occasionally excite
suspicion by the little outbreaks of my sharper passion for them,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: simply the religion of the Dead. It suited his inclination, it
satisfied his spirit, it gave employment to his piety. It answered
his love of great offices, of a solemn and splendid ritual; for no
shrine could be more bedecked and no ceremonial more stately than
those to which his worship was attached. He had no imagination
about these things but that they were accessible to any one who
should feel the need of them. The poorest could build such temples
of the spirit - could make them blaze with candles and smoke with
incense, make them flush with pictures and flowers. The cost, in
the common phrase, of keeping them up fell wholly on the generous
heart.
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