| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: That, in itself, was shocking; a married man was not expected
to do such things. But it was nothing to the scene that followed.
Crazy Mary darted out from the group of women at the church door,
and ran down the road after Lena, shouting horrible threats.
`Look out, you Lena Lingard, look out! I'll come over with
a corn-knife one day and trim some of that shape off you.
Then you won't sail round so fine, making eyes at the men!...'
The Norwegian women didn't know where to look. They were
formal housewives, most of them, with a severe sense of decorum.
But Lena Lingard only laughed her lazy, good-natured laugh and rode on,
gazing back over her shoulder at Ole's infuriated wife.
My Antonia |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum: "I thank you very much."
"We salute your Royal Highness!" cried the Wizard, kneeling and
kissing her hand.
Just then the voice of the Prince was heard calling upon them to
hasten, and a moment later he returned to the enclosure, followed by a
number of his people.
Instantly the Princess turned and faced him, and when he saw that she
was picked the Prince stood still and began to tremble.
"Sir," said the Royal Lady, with much dignity, "you have wronged me
greatly, and would have wronged me still more had not these strangers
come to my rescue. I have been ready for picking all the past week,
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: Tom lifted his lip and showed the vacancy.
"Well, all right," said Huckleberry, "it's a trade."
Tom enclosed the tick in the percussion-cap box
that had lately been the pinchbug's prison, and the
boys separated, each feeling wealthier than before.
When Tom reached the little isolated frame school-
house, he strode in briskly, with the manner of one
who had come with all honest speed. He hung his
hat on a peg and flung himself into his seat with busi-
ness-like alacrity. The master, throned on high in his
great splint-bottom arm-chair, was dozing, lulled by the
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
