| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: difficulty. There was a time when with the rest of the happy band they saw
beauty shining in brightness,--we philosophers following in the train of
Zeus, others in company with other gods; and then we beheld the beatific
vision and were initiated into a mystery which may be truly called most
blessed, celebrated by us in our state of innocence, before we had any
experience of evils to come, when we were admitted to the sight of
apparitions innocent and simple and calm and happy, which we beheld shining
in pure light, pure ourselves and not yet enshrined in that living tomb
which we carry about, now that we are imprisoned in the body, like an
oyster in his shell. Let me linger over the memory of scenes which have
passed away.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Heritage of the Desert by Zane Grey: Then hear me. Bishop Caldwell must never know of his son's guilt. He
would sink under it. Keep the secret. Paul will be a man again. I
know. I see. For, Mormons, August Naab has the gift of revelation!"
XXI
MESCAL
Summer gleams of golden sunshine swam under the glistening red walls of
the oasis. Shadows from white clouds, like sails on a deep-blue sea,
darkened the broad fields of alfalfa. Circling columns of smoke were
wafted far above the cottonwoods and floated in the still air. The
desert-red color of Navajo blankets brightened the grove.
Half-naked bronze Indians lolled in the shade, lounged on the cabin
The Heritage of the Desert |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: the bottom of the stairs was ajar, and the key in the lock; and
it was noticed by the chaplain (an observant man) that the dress
she wore was stained with blood about the knees, and that there
were traces of small blood-stained hands low down on the
staircase walls, so that it was conjectured that she had really
been at the postern-door when her husband fell and, feeling her
way up to him in the darkness on her hands and knees, had been
stained by his blood dripping down on her. Of course it was
argued on the other side that the blood-marks on her dress might
have been caused by her kneeling down by her husband when she
rushed out of her room; but there was the open door below, and
|
