| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: the heavenly fire with the life-giving forces of nature is
very common in the myths of both hemispheres, and in view of
the facts already cited it need not surprise us. Hence the
Hindu Agni and the Norse Thor were patrons of marriage, and in
Norway, the most lucky day on which to be married is still
supposed to be Thursday, which in old times was the day of the
fire-god.[60] Hence the lightning-plants have divers virtues
in matters pertaining to marriage. The Romans made their
wedding torches of whitethorn; hazel-nuts are still used all
over Europe in divinations relating to the future lover or
sweetheart;[61] and under a mistletoe bough it is allowable
Myths and Myth-Makers |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Three Taverns by Edwin Arlington Robinson: When I say truth? Are you, at four and twenty,
So little deceived in us that you interpret
The humor of a woman to be noticed
As her choice between you and Acheron?
Are you so unscathed yet as to infer
That if a woman worries when a man,
Or a man-child, has wet shoes on his feet
She may as well commemorate with ashes
The last eclipse of her tranquillity?
If you look up at me and blink again,
I shall not have to make you tell me lies
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: were never empty; the streets of almost every village echoed
daily with the lash; the life of a woman, whose mild and
Christian spirit no cruelty could embitter, had been sacrificed;
and more innocent blood was yet to pollute the hands that were so
often raised in prayer. Early after the Restoration, the English
Quakers represented to Charles II that a "vein of blood was open
in his dominions;" but though the displeasure of the voluptuous
king was roused, his interference was not prompt. And now the
tale must stride forward over many months, leaving Pearson to
encounter ignominy and misfortune; his wife to a firm endurance
of a thousand sorrows; poor Ilbrahim to pine and droop like a
Twice Told Tales |
