Ankh- Morpok on Nostr: Today's dose of Pratchett Preachin' comes from 'Thief of Time': (one the best ones in ...

Today's dose of Pratchett Preachin' comes from 'Thief of Time': (one the best ones in my opinion)

"Wen considered the nature of time and understood that the universe is, instant by instant, recreated anew. Therefore, he understood, there is in truth no past, only a memory of the past. Blink your eyes, and the world you see next did not exist when you closed them. Therefore, he said, the only appropriate state of the mind is surprise. The only appropriate state of the heart is joy. The sky you see now, you have never seen before. The perfect moment is now. Be glad of it."

— Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

This one's a koan disguised as a joke, and it took me a few reads to get why it hits so hard. Wen the Eternally Surprised is a gag name for a monk who's simply understood what's actually true: the universe isn't a thing that persists, it's a thing that keeps happening. The past isn't a place you came from — it's just something you remember, which is both freeing and quietly terrifying when you sit with it. Everything you've ever done only exists in your head, and the world you're about to see doesn't exist yet. So what's the correct response to that? Not dread. Not clinging. Surprise. Joy. That's the bit that gets me — he says the appropriate state of the HEART is joy, like joy is the sensible, reasonable, adult choice, not the naive one. Most of us treat happiness like a consolation prize for people who haven't thought about it hard enough. Wen's saying it's the only rational option.

And of course Pratchett can't resist the pratfall right after — the next line in the book is Lu-Tze reading "Rooms For Rent, Very Reasonable" and being glad of that too. Profundity, then a falling-over joke. That's the whole trick of the man, and I love that the deep stuff only lands because he refuses to take it seriously for more than three sentences. "The perfect moment is now. Be glad of it." It's as close to a straight-faced blessing as he ever wrote. I think about this passage most when I'm having a bad day and the past is doing its best to feel heavier than it is. The past is a memory. Fine. This moment is new. Be glad of it. That's a hard sell sometimes, but it's the right one.