| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: to his room at the hotel.
"I have just received a letter from my sister," he said.
"I am afraid I shall have to go away."
"Ah, I 'm sorry for that," said Bernard, who was so well pleased
with the actual that he desired no mutation.
"I mean only for a short time," Gordon explained. "My poor sister writes from
England, telling me that my brother-in-law is suddenly obliged to go home.
She has decided not to remain behind, and they are to sail a fortnight hence.
She wants very much to see me before she goes, and as I don't know when I
shall see her again, I feel as if I ought to join her immediately and spend
the interval with her. That will take about a fortnight."
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from One Basket by Edna Ferber: paving. I have even known Mrs. Hines to bring her cherries out
there when she had canning to do, and pit them there on the front
porch partially shielded by her porch vine, but not so
effectually that she was deprived of the sights and sounds about
her. The kettle in her lap and the dishpan full of great ripe
cherries on the porch floor by her chair, she would pit and chat
and peer out through the vines, the red juice staining her plump
bare arms.
I have wondered since what Blanche Devine thought of us those
lonesome evenings--those evenings filled with friendly sights and
sounds. It must have been difficult for her, who had dwelt
One Basket |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Message by Honore de Balzac: tender confidences. Our bashful fears, our silent interjections,
our blushes, as we met each other's eyes, were expressive with an
eloquence, a boyish charm, which I have ceased to feel. One must
remain young, no doubt, to understand youth.
Well, we understood one another to admiration on all the
essential points of passion. We had laid it down as an axiom at
the very outset, that in theory and practice there was no such
piece of driveling nonsense in this world as a certificate of
birth; that plenty of women were younger at forty than many a
girl of twenty; and, to come to the point, that a woman is no
older than she looks.
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