| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: their presence. I am like an infant which has not yet smiled. I look
dejected and forlorn, as if I had no home to go to. The multitude of
men all have enough and to spare. I alone seem to have lost
everything. My mind is that of a stupid man; I am in a state of
chaos.
Ordinary men look bright and intelligent, while I alone seem to be
benighted. They look full of discrimination, while I alone am dull
and confused. I seem to be carried about as on the sea, drifting as
if I had nowhere to rest. All men have their spheres of action, while
I alone seem dull and incapable, like a rude borderer. (Thus) I alone
am different from other men, but I value the nursing-mother (the Tao).
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: any, if you inquire more narrowly you will find have some stored in
somebody's barn. I look upon England today as an old gentleman who
is travelling with a great deal of baggage, trumpery which has
accumulated from long housekeeping, which he has not the courage to
burn; great trunk, little trunk, bandbox, and bundle. Throw away
the first three at least. It would surpass the powers of a well man
nowadays to take up his bed and walk, and I should certainly advise
a sick one to lay down his bed and run. When I have met an
immigrant tottering under a bundle which contained his all --
looking like an enormous wen which had grown out of the nape of his
neck -- I have pitied him, not because that was his all, but because
Walden |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: growing around them, staffs for old age, you know, and all that
sort of thing. Don't know but I should have adopted a boy myself
if it hadn't been for --"
The man stopped, and his face was pink. Eudora turned her face
slightly away.
"By the way," said the man, in a suddenly hushed voice, "I
suppose the kid you've got there is asleep. Wouldn't do to wake
him?"
"I think I had better not," replied Eudora, in a hesitating
voice. She began to walk along, and Harry Lawton fell into step
beside her.
|
