| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Options by O. Henry: and letters from rising artists as no more than messages from Mars.
For a quarter of a minute Barbara looked at Nevada with a strange
steadfastness; and then a smile so small that it widened her mouth
only the sixteenth part of an inch, and narrowed her eyes no more than
a twentieth, flashed like an inspired thought across her face.
Since the beginning no woman has been a mystery to another woman
Swift as light travels, each penetrates the heart and mind of another,
sifts her sister's words of their cunningest disguises, reads her most
hidden desires, and plucks the sophistry from her wiliest talk like
hairs from a comb, twiddling them sardonically between her thumb and
fingers before letting them float away on the breezes of fundamental
Options |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Fantastic Fables by Ambrose Bierce: A MAN having found a Lion in his path undertook to subdue him by
the power of the human eye; and near by was a Rattlesnake engaged
in fascinating a small bird.
"How are you getting on, brother?" the Man called out to the other
reptile, without removing his eyes from those of the Lion.
"Admirably," replied the serpent. "My success is assured; my
victim draws nearer and nearer in spite of her efforts."
"And mine," said the Man, "draws nearer and nearer in spite of
mine. Are you sure it is all right?"
"If you don't think so," the reptile replied as well as he then
could, with his mouth full of bird, "you better give it up."
Fantastic Fables |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Young Forester by Zane Grey: hung my coat on the pommel of my saddle.
"Bud, you and Bill hold the horses here!" I shouted, intensely excited.
"Herky, have you matches?"
"Nary a match."
"Hyar's a box," said Bill, tossing it.
"Come on, Herky! You run up the brook. Light a match, and drop it every
hundred feet. Be sure it catches. Lucky there's little wind down here. Go
as far as you can. I'll run down!"
We splashed out of the brook and leaped up the bank. The grass was long and
dry. There was brush near by, and the pine-needle mats almost bordered the
bank. I struck a match and dropped it.
The Young Forester |
