| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: "'Take back your sword; and, when you have thoroughly cleansed it and wiped
it of the blood and mire, then raise it to set free the oppressed of other
climes.
"'Great Prince's Daughter, take heed! You put your sword into the hands of
recreant knights; they will dull its edge and mar its brightness, and, when
your hour of need comes and you would put it into other hands, you will
find its edge chipped and its point broken. Take heed! Take heed!'
"Cry to the wise men of England: 'You, who in peace and calm in shaded
chambers ponder on all things in heaven and earth, and take all knowledge
for your province, have you no time to think of this? To whom has England
given her power? How do the men wield it who have filched it from her?
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Herland by Charlotte Gilman: It was the eager happiness of the children and young people
which first made me see the folly of that common notion of ours
--that if life was smooth and happy, people would not enjoy it.
As I studied these youngsters, vigorous, joyous, eager little
creatures, and their voracious appetite for life, it shook my previous
ideas so thoroughly that they have never been re-established.
The steady level of good health gave them all that natural stimulus
we used to call "animal spirits"--an odd contradiction in terms.
They found themselves in an immediate environment which was
agreeable and interesting, and before them stretched the years of
learning and discovery, the fascinating, endless process of education.
Herland |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Verses 1889-1896 by Rudyard Kipling: And the wife of my youth shall charm me -- an' the rest can go to Hell!
(Dickie, ~he~ will, that's certain.) I'll lie in our standin'-bed,
An' Mac'll take her in ballast -- an' she trims best by the head. . . .
Down by the head an' sinkin', her fires are drawn and cold,
And the water's splashin' hollow on the skin of the empty hold --
Churning an' choking and chuckling, quiet and scummy and dark --
Full to her lower hatches and risin' steady. Hark!
That was the after-bulkhead. . . . She's flooded from stem to stern. . . .
Never seen death yet, Dickie? . . . Well, now is your time to learn!
Verses 1889-1896 |
