| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: long ago.
I, who cannot stay in my chamber for a single day without
acquiring some rust, and when sometimes I have stolen forth for a
walk at the eleventh hour, or four o'clock in the afternoon, too
late to redeem the day, when the shades of night were already
beginning to be mingled with the daylight, have felt as if I had
committed some sin to be atoned for,--I confess that I am
astonished at the power of endurance, to say nothing of the moral
insensibility, of my neighbors who confine themselves to shops
and offices the whole day for weeks and months, aye, and years
almost together. I know not what manner of stuff they are
Walking |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Whirligigs by O. Henry: leader of the attacking force the engineer descended
to the ground and uncoupled the engine and tender.
Then John Big Dog, perched upon the coal, sportively
held two guns upon the engine driver and the fireman,
and suggested that they run the engine fifty yards away
and there await further orders.
Shark Dodson and Bob Tidball, scorning to put
such low-grade ore as the passengers through the mill,
struck out for the rich pocket of the express car. They
found the messenger serene in the belief that the "Sunset
Express" was taking on nothing more stimulating and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: "Open the quarter-deck ports! What for, sir?"
"The only reason you need concern yourself about is because I tell you
to do so. Have them open wide and fastened properly."
He reddened and went off, but I believe made some jeering remark
to the carpenter as to the sensible practice of ventilating
a ship's quarter-deck. I know he popped into the mate's cabin
to impart the fact to him because the whiskers came on deck,
as it were by chance, and stole glances at me from below--
for signs of lunacy or drunkenness, I suppose.
A little before supper, feeling more restless than ever, I rejoined,
for a moment, my second self. And to find him sitting so quietly
The Secret Sharer |
