| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: Tucson for $25,000. They paid our check at the bank in silver--a
thousand dollars in a sack. We loaded it in our wagon and drove east a
hundred miles before we recovered our presence of intellect. Twenty-
five thousand dollars doesn't sound like so much when you're reading
the annual report of the Pennsylvania Railroad or listening to an
actor talking about his salary; but when you can raise up a wagon
sheet and kick around your bootheel and hear every one of 'em ring
against another it makes you feel like you was a night-and-day bank
with the clock striking twelve.
"The third day out we drove into one of the most specious and tidy
little towns that Nature or Rand and McNally ever turned out. It was
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: their route that ball of snow, the emblem of the globe of
fortune, which is for the ambitious nothing but a step
growing unceasingly higher to conduct him to his object. He
got together, therefore, his army, formidable at the same
time for its composition and its numbers, and hastened to
meet Monk, who, on his part, like a prudent navigator
sailing amidst rocks, advanced by very short marches,
listening to the reports and scenting the air which came
from London.
The two armies came in sight of each other near Newcastle,
Lambert, arriving first, encamped in the city itself. Monk,
Ten Years Later |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: solemnly. "You sit here and discuss your sports and your young ladies and
your----" He supplied an imaginary noun with another wave of his hand.
"As for me, I am fifty years old, and I won't impose myself on you any
longer."
As he shook hands and turned away his tragic nose was trembling.
I wondered if I had said anything to offend him.
"He becomes very sentimental sometimes," explained Gatsby. "This is one of
his sentimental days. He's quite a character around New York--a denizen of
Broadway."
"Who is he, anyhow, an actor?"
"No."
The Great Gatsby |
