| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: clear the sooty sky, breaking through the indolent
silence of the sea.
The barrier of awful stillness which had encom-
passed us for so many days as though we had been
accursed, was broken. I felt that. I let myself
fall on to the skylight seat. A faint white ridge of
foam, thin, very thin, broke alongside. The first for
ages--for ages. I could have cheered, if it hadn't
been for the sense of guilt which clung to all
my thoughts secretly. Ransome stood before me.
"What about the mate," I asked anxiously.
The Shadow Line |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Edition of The Ambassadors by Henry James: strengthened; he needn't in the least be anxious for her.
What would once more have been distinct to him had he tried to
make it so was that, as Mrs. Newsome was essentially all moral pressure,
the presence of this element was almost identical with her own presence.
It wasn't perhaps that he felt he was dealing with her straight,
but it was certainly as if she had been dealing straight with HIM.
She was reaching him somehow by the lengthened arm of the spirit,
and he was having to that extent to take her into account;
but he wasn't reaching her in turn, not making her take HIM;
he was only reaching Sarah, who appeared to take so little of him.
"Something has clearly passed between you and Chad," he presently said,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: condemned man and the sergeant standing on the two ends of
the same plank, which spanned three of the cross-ties of the
bridge. The end upon which the civilian stood almost, but
not quite, reached a fourth. This plank had been held in
place by the weight of the captain; it was now held by that
of the sergeant. At a signal from the former the latter
would step aside, the plank would tilt and the condemned man
go down between two ties. The arrangement commended itself
to his judgement as simple and effective. His face had not
been covered nor his eyes bandaged. He looked a moment at
his "unsteadfast footing," then let his gaze wander to the
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
