| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Moby Dick by Herman Melville: in worshipping his piece of wood? But what is worship? thought I.
Do you suppose now, Ishmael, that the magnanimous God of heaven and
earth--pagans and all included--can possibly be jealous of an
insignificant bit of black wood? Impossible! But what is
worship?--to do the will of God--THAT is worship. And what is the
will of God?--to do to my fellow man what I would have my fellow man
to do to me--THAT is the will of God. Now, Queequeg is my fellow
man. And what do I wish that this Queequeg would do to me? Why,
unite with me in my particular Presbyterian form of worship.
Consequently, I must then unite with him in his; ergo, I must turn
idolator. So I kindled the shavings; helped prop up the innocent
Moby Dick |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from King James Bible: in thy name.
PSA 63:5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my
mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:
PSA 63:6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the
night watches.
PSA 63:7 Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy
wings will I rejoice.
PSA 63:8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth
me.
PSA 63:9 But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the
lower parts of the earth.
King James Bible |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: He went back into the cabin and walked there. Hour after hour passed, and
he was dreaming.
For, mark you, men will dream; the most that can be asked of them is but
that the dream be not in too glaring discord with the thing they know. He
walked with bent head.
All dies, all dies! the roses are red with the matter that once reddened
the cheek of the child; the flowers bloom the fairest on the last year's
battleground; the work of death's finger cunningly wreathed over is at the
heart of all things, even of the living.
Death's finger is everywhere. The rocks are built up of a life that was.
Bodies, thoughts, and loves die: from where springs that whisper to the
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