| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: It is so difficult to keep 'heights that the soul is competent to
gain.' We think in eternity, but we move slowly through time; and
how slowly time goes with us who lie in prison I need not tell
again, nor of the weariness and despair that creep back into one's
cell, and into the cell of one's heart, with such strange
insistence that one has, as it were, to garnish and sweep one's
house for their coming, as for an unwelcome guest, or a bitter
master, or a slave whose slave it is one's chance or choice to be.
And, though at present my friends may find it a hard thing to
believe, it is true none the less, that for them living in freedom
and idleness and comfort it is more easy to learn the lessons of
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: it reached the edge of the desert and began racing across the deep sands.
But its tired feet sank far
262
into the sand, and in a few minutes the Griffin fell forward, completely
exhausted, and lay still upon the desert waste.
Glinda came up a moment later, riding the still vigorous Saw-Horse; and
having unwound a slender golden thread from her girdle the Sorceress threw
it over the head of the panting and helpless Griffin, and so destroyed the
magical power of Mombi's transformation.
For the animal, with one fierce shudder, disappeared from view, while in its
place was discovered the form of the old Witch, glaring savagely at the
The Marvelous Land of Oz |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: made in different ways, and for that very reason money is not
inevitably necessary, like nursing a child. Consequently woman
is necessarily superior to man, and must rule. But man, in our
society, not only does not recognize this, but, on the contrary,
always looks upon her from the height of his grandeur, despising
what she does.
"Thus my wife despised me for my work at the Zemstvo, because she
gave birth to children and nursed them. I, in turn, thought that
woman's labor was most contemptible, which one might and should
laugh at.
"Apart from the other motives, we were also separated by a mutual
The Kreutzer Sonata |
