| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Bab:A Sub-Deb, Mary Roberts Rinehart by Mary Roberts Rinehart: motives were perfectly ireproachible.
Well, they fell on the muffins like pigs, and I could hardly stand
it. So I wandered into the den, and it occurred to me to write the
letter then. I felt that they all expected me to do something anyhow.
If I had never written the wretched letter things would be better
now. As I say, I overdid. But everything had gone so smoothly all
day that I was decieved. But the real reason was a new set of furs.
I had secured the dresses and the promise of the necklace on a Poem
and a Photograph, and I thought that a good love letter might bring
a muff. It all shows that it does not do to be grasping.
HAD I NOT WRITTEN THE LETTER, THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO TRADGEDY.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Tanach: 1_Kings 20: 6 but I will send my servants unto thee tomorrow about this time, and they shall search thy house, and the houses of thy servants; and it shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away.'
1_Kings 20: 7 Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said: 'Mark, I pray you, and see how this man seeketh mischief; for he sent unto me for my wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold; and I denied him not.'
1_Kings 20: 8 And all the elders and all the people said unto him: 'Hearken thou not, neither consent.'
1_Kings 20: 9 Wherefore he said unto the messengers of Ben-hadad: 'Tell my lord the king: All that thou didst send for to thy servant at the first I will do; but this thing I may not do.' And the messengers departed, and brought him back word.
1_Kings 20: 10 And Ben-hadad sent unto him, and said: 'The gods do so unto me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people that follow me.'
1_Kings 20: 11 And the king of Israel answered and said: 'Tell him: Let not him that girdeth on his armour boast himself as he that putteth it off.'
1_Kings 20: 12 And it came to pass, when Ben-hadad heard this message, as he was drinking, he and the kings, in the booths, that he said unto his servants: 'Set yourselves in array.' And they set themselves in array against the city.
The Tanach |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: Ambrosch's grave affection, Leo's jealous, animal little love.
That moment, when they all came tumbling out of the cave into
the light, was a sight any man might have come far to see.
Antonia had always been one to leave images in the mind
that did not fade--that grew stronger with time.
In my memory there was a succession of such pictures,
fixed there like the old woodcuts of one's first primer:
Antonia kicking her bare legs against the sides of my pony when we
came home in triumph with our snake; Antonia in her black shawl
and fur cap, as she stood by her father's grave in the snowstorm;
Antonia coming in with her work-team along the evening sky-line.
My Antonia |
