| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa: Manstin, who knew all the peculiar contrivances of the people. At
once his eyes became fixed upon the solitary dwelling and hither he
followed his curiosity,--a real blind man's rope.
Quietly he lifted the door-flap and entered in. An old
toothless grandfather, blind and shaky with age, sat upon the
ground. He was not deaf however. He heard the entrance and felt
the presence of some stranger.
"How, grandchild," he mumbled, for he was old enough to be
grandparent to every living thing, "how! I cannot see you. Pray,
speak your name!"
"Grandfather, I am Manstin," answered the rabbit, all the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: Chinese civilization, even in the so-called modern inventions,
was already old while ours lay still in the cradle, it was to no
scientific spirit that its discoveries were due. Notwithstanding
the fact that Cathay was the happy possessor of gunpowder, movable
type, and the compass before such things were dreamt of in Europe,
she owed them to no knowledge of physics, chemistry, or mechanics.
It was as arts, not as sciences, they were invented. And it speaks
volumes for her civilization that she burnt her powder for fireworks,
not for firearms. To the West alone belongs the credit of
manufacturing that article for the sake of killing people instead
of merely killing time.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: but a moment later it had fallen in and there was nothing but ashes, and
Jonathan went about with a look like hunger in his black eyes. At these
times he exaggerated his absurd manner of speaking, and he sang in church--
he was the leader of the choir--with such fearful dramatic intensity that
the meanest hymn put on an unholy splendour.
"It seems to me just as imbecile, just as infernal, to have to go to the
office on Monday," said Jonathan, "as it always has done and always will
do. To spend all the best years of one's life sitting on a stool from nine
to five, scratching in somebody's ledger! It's a queer use to make of
one's...one and only life, isn't it? Or do I fondly dream?" He rolled
over on the grass and looked up at Linda. "Tell me, what is the difference
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