| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: I walked in a certain hallway, trying to find
A certain door: I found one, tried it, opened,
And there in a spacious chamber, brightly lighted,
A hundred men played music, loudly, swiftly,
While one tall woman sent her voice above them
In powerful sweetness. . . .Closing then the door
I heard it die behind me, fade to whisper,--
And walked in a quiet hallway as before.
Just such a glimpse, as through that opened door,
Is all we know of those we call our friends. . . .
We hear a sudden music, see a playing
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: ages. I am like the man, and can give you neither a better reason
nor a worse. But do you, prithee, speak with him again."
So the Earl's daughter spoke to the man. "If you were not so
bitter ugly," quoth she, "my father the Earl would have us marry."
"Bitter ugly am I," said the man, "and you as fair as May. Bitter
ugly I am, and what of that? It was so my fathers - "
"In the name of God," said the Earl's daughter, "let your fathers
be!"
"If I had done that," said the man, "you had never been chaffering
with me here in the market, nor your father the Earl watching with
the end of his eye."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: Eternal honour to his name.
Yes, Hiero, and herein precisely lies the difference between a man and
other animals, in this outstretching after honour.[7] Since, it would
seem, all living creatures alike take pleasure in meats and drinks, in
sleep and sexual joys. Only the love of honour is implanted neither in
unreasoning brutes[8] nor universally in man. But they in whose hearts
the passion for honour and fair fame has fallen like a seed, these
unmistakably[9] are separated most widely from the brutes. These may
claim to be called men,[10] not human beings merely. So that, in my
poor judgment, it is but reasonable you should submit to bear the
pains and penalties of royalty, since you are honoured far beyond all
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