| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: she quickly dropped it instead of letting it slide down her throat.
"I might have known better," she muttered to herself, "for where there
is no grass there can be no live grasshoppers. This is probably one
of the King's transformations."
A moment later she approached one of the purple ornaments, and while
the Queen watched her curiously the hen broke the Nome King's
enchantment and a sweet-faced girl, whose golden hair fell in a cloud
over her shoulders, stood beside them.
"Evanna!" cried the Queen, "my own Evanna!" and she clasped the girl
to her bosom and covered her face with kisses.
"That's all right," said Billina, contentedly. "Am I a good guesser,
Ozma of Oz |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: neutrality in commerce, the clerks were prating a different story
in the bar-rooms; and the late high feat of the knight-errant,
Becker, had killed all confidence in Germans at the root. By these
three impolicies, the German adventure in Samoa was defeated.
I imply that the handful of whites were the true obstacle, not the
thousands of malcontent Samoans; for had the whites frankly
accepted Brandeis, the path of Germany was clear, and the end of
their policy, however troublesome might be its course, was obvious.
But this is not to say that the natives were content. In a sense,
indeed, their opposition was continuous. There will always be
opposition in Samoa when taxes are imposed; and the deportation of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from What is Man? by Mark Twain: Will Joyce, the blacksmith's journeyman, came out and proclaimed
himself the assassin! Plainly he was not minded to be robbed of
his glory. He made his proclamation, and stuck to it. Stuck to
it, and insisted upon a trial. Here was an ominous thing; here
was a new and peculiarly formidable terror, for a motive was
revealed here which society could not hope to deal with
successfully--VANITY, thirst for notoriety. If men were going to
kill for notoriety's sake, and to win the glory of newspaper
renown, a big trial, and a showy execution, what possible
invention of man could discourage or deter them? The town was in
a sort of panic; it did not know what to do.
What is Man? |
