| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: on getting up from breakfast I would sit down in the window with
a book and let them clear the table when they liked; but if you
think that on that morning I was in the least impatient, you are
mistaken. I remember that I was perfectly calm. As a matter of
fact I was not at all certain that I wanted to write, or that I
meant to write, or that I had anything to write about. No, I was
not impatient. I lounged between the mantelpiece and the window,
not even consciously waiting for the table to be cleared. It was
ten to one that before my landlady's daughter was done I would
pick up a book and sit down with it all the morning in a spirit
of enjoyable indolence. I affirm it with assurance, and I don't
Some Reminiscences |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: real heart. "I never set up for being better than others. Not
even to myself. My thoughts ain't apt to travel around making
comparisons. And I shouldn't wonder if my memory took as much
notice of the meannesses I have done as of--as of the other
actions. But to have to sit like a dumb lamb and let a stranger
tell yu' for an hour that yu're a hawg and a swine, just after
you have acted in a way which them that know the facts would call
pretty near white--"
"Trampas!" I could not help exclaiming.
For there are moments of insight when a guess amounts to
knowledge.
The Virginian |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: "Stop the draught under the wheat-rick!" cried
Gabriel to those nearest to him. The corn stood on
stone staddles, and between these, tongues of yellow
hue from the burning straw licked and darted playfully.
If the fire once got under this stack, all would be
lost.
"Get a tarpaulin -- quick!" said Gabriel.
A rick-cloth was brought, and they hung it like a
curtain across the channel. The flames immediately
ceased to go under the bottom of the corn-stack, and
stood up vertical.
Far From the Madding Crowd |
