| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Extracts From Adam's Diary by Mark Twain: grass does not agree with it; is afraid she can't raise it; thinks
it was intended to live on decayed flesh. The buzzard must get
along the best it can with what is provided. We cannot overturn
the whole scheme to accommodate the buzzard.
Saturday
She fell in the pond yesterday, when she was looking at herself
in it, which she is always doing. She nearly strangled, and said
it was most uncomfortable. This made her sorry for the creatures
which live in there, which she calls fish, for she continues to
fasten names on to things that don't need them and don't come when
they are called by them, which is a matter of no consequence to
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: in bitter coldness. I know not the little arts of my sex.
I care but little for the vanity of those who would chide me,
and am unwilling as well as ashamed to be guilty of anything
that would lead you to think 'all is not gold that glitters';
so be no rash in your resolution. It is better to repent now,
than to do it in a more solemn hour. Yes, I know what you would say.
I know you have a costly gift for me--the noblest that man can make--
YOUR HEART! You should not offer it to one so unworthy.
Heaven, you know, has allowed my father's house to be made a house
of solitude, a home of silent obedience, which my parents say
is more to be admired than big names and high-sounding titles.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: alike know what needs to be done, how does it happen that all farmers
do not fare like, but some live in affluence owning more than they can
possibly enjoy, while others of them fail to obtain the barest
necessities and actually run into debt?
I will tell you, Socrates (Ischomachus replied). It is neither
knowledge nor lack of knowledge in these husbandmen which causes some
to be well off, while others are in difficulties; nor will you ever
hear such tales afloat as that this or that estate has gone to ruin
because the sower failed to sow evenly, or that the planter failed to
plant straight rows of plants, or that such an one,[1] being ignorant
what soil was best suited to bear vines, had set his plants in sterile
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