| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather: among smartly dressed, disabled men of
every nationality; forever going on journeys
that led nowhere; hurrying to catch trains
that he might just as well miss; getting up in
the morning with a great bustle and splashing
of water, to begin a day that had no purpose
and no meaning; dining late to shorten the
night, sleeping late to shorten the day.
And for what? For a mere folly, a masquerade,
a little thing that he could not let go.
AND HE COULD EVEN LET IT GO, he told himself.
Alexander's Bridge |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde: LADY BRACKNELL. You are nothing of the kind, sir. And now, as
regards Algernon! . . . Algernon!
ALGERNON. Yes, Aunt Augusta.
LADY BRACKNELL. May I ask if it is in this house that your invalid
friend Mr. Bunbury resides?
ALGERNON. [Stammering.] Oh! No! Bunbury doesn't live here.
Bunbury is somewhere else at present. In fact, Bunbury is dead,
LADY BRACKNELL. Dead! When did Mr. Bunbury die? His death must
have been extremely sudden.
ALGERNON. [Airily.] Oh! I killed Bunbury this afternoon. I mean
poor Bunbury died this afternoon.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: And he seemed to be pleading and chattering still, with his
brightly eager smile, his uplifted eyebrows, his expressive mouth,
after he had ceased speaking, and while, with his glance
quickly turning from the father to the daughter, he sat waiting
for the effect of his appeal. "It is not your want of means,"
said Mr. Wentworth, after a period of severe reticence.
"Now it 's delightful of you to say that! Only don't say
it 's my want of character. Because I have a character--
I assure you I have; a small one, a little slip of a thing,
but still something tangible."
"Ought you not to tell Felix that it is Mr. Brand, father?"
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