| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Human Drift by Jack London: MAUD. [Interrupting.] Oh!
FITZSIMMONS. And you kept repeating over and over, "Bob, dear
Bob."
MAUD. [Springing to her feet.] Oh! I never did! [Recollecting
herself.] Perhaps I must have. I was a trifle wild in those
days, I admit. But I'm wise now. I've sowed my wild oats and
steadied down.
FITZSIMMONS. I'm glad to hear that, Harry. You were tearing off
a pretty fast pace in those days. [Pause, in which MAUD nods.]
Still punch the bag?
MAUD. [In quick alarm, glancing at punching bag.] No, I've got
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: will be that you will do something unpleasant if the noise continues.
The something unpleasant may be only a look of suffering to rouse the
child's affectionate sympathy (if it has any), or it may run to
forcible expulsion from the room with plenty of unnecessary violence;
but the principle is the same: there are no false pretences involved:
the child learns in a straightforward way that it does not pay to be
inconsiderate. Also, perhaps, that Mamma, who made the child learn
the Sermon on the Mount, is not really a Christian.
The Sin of Nadab and Abihu
But there is another sort of answer in wide use which is neither
straightforward, instructive, nor harmless. In its simplest form it
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: "I saw him first at the Country Club," Halsey said quietly. He
was rather pale, but very composed. "I stopped there with my
automobile for gasolene. Mr. Armstrong had been playing cards.
When I saw him there, he was coming out of the card-room, talking
to Mr. John Bailey."
"The nature of the discussion--was it amicable?"
Halsey hesitated.
"They were having a dispute," he said. "I asked Mr. Bailey to
leave the club with me and come to Sunnyside over Sunday."
"Isn't it a fact, Mr. Innes, that you took Mr. Bailey away from
the club-house because you were afraid there would be blows?"
The Circular Staircase |
