| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mansion by Henry van Dyke: profitable 'plan'--to let myself go, and lose myself for a while
at least--to do the things that I want to do, just because
I want to do them."
"My boy," said his mother, anxiously, "you are not going to do
anything
wrong or foolish? You know the falsehood of that old proverb
about
wild oats."
He threw back his head and laughed. "Yes, mother," he answered,
"I know it well enough. But in California, you know, the wild
oats are
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: And what is there so horrible appears?
Now what is there so sad about it all?
Is't not serener far than any sleep?
And, verily, those tortures said to be
In Acheron, the deep, they all are ours
Here in this life. No Tantalus, benumbed
With baseless terror, as the fables tell,
Fears the huge boulder hanging in the air:
But, rather, in life an empty dread of Gods
Urges mortality, and each one fears
Such fall of fortune as may chance to him.
Of The Nature of Things |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Summer by Edith Wharton: shadowy image. Now that she walked again in a daylight
world, on the way back to familiar things, her
imagination moved more soberly. On one point she was
still decided: she could not remain at North Dormer,
and the sooner she got away from it the better.
But everything beyond was darkness.
As she continued to climb the air grew keener, and when
she passed from the shelter of the pines to the open
grassy roof of the Mountain the cold wind of the night
before sprang out on her. She bent her shoulders and
struggled on against it for a while; but presently her
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