| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: was it? six or seven? Seven. A long time.
He sat on the veranda with a closed book on his knee,
and, as it were, looked out upon his solitude, as if the
fact of Captain Whalley's blindness had opened his
eyes to his own. There were many sorts of heartaches
and troubles, and there was no place where they could
not find a man out. And he felt ashamed, as though
he had for six years behaved like a peevish boy.
His thought followed the Sofala on her way. On the
spur of the moment he had acted impulsively, turning
to the thing most pressing. And what else could he
 End of the Tether |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: " 'Favor me so far as to stay here,' he added. 'I am armed, and a sure
shot. I have gone tiger-hunting, and fought on the deck when there was
nothing for it but to win or die; but I don't care to trust yonder
elegant scoundrel.'
"He sat down again in his armchair before his bureau, and his face
grew pale and impassive as before.
" 'Ah!' he continued, turning to me, 'you will see that lovely
creature I once told you about; I can hear a fine lady's step in the
corridor; it is she, no doubt;' and, as a matter of fact, the young
man came in with a woman on his arm. I recognized the Countess, whose
levee Gobseck had described for me, one of old Goriot's two daughters.
 Gobseck |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Beasts of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: on deck, determined that none should board the Kincaid
without first having agreed to her demands.
For an hour or so nothing appeared upon the surface of
the river to cause her alarm, but then, about a bend upstream,
she saw a canoe appear in which sat a single figure. It had
not proceeded far in her direction before she recognized the
occupant as Rokoff, and when the fellow attempted to board
he found a rifle staring him in the face.
When the Russian discovered who it was that repelled his
advance he became furious, cursing and threatening in a most
horrible manner; but, finding that these tactics failed to
 The Beasts of Tarzan |