The Perfect Moment

I love Terry Prachett’s Discworld books. On a recent sunny Tuesday, I wandered around a new neighborhood and found The Munich Readery, a very large second-hand English book store. It smelled so good in there – shelves and shelves of books that I can read. I realized I hadn’t been in a library in over a year and a wave of homesickness came crashing in. I believe that libraries are the best invention of mankind yet, and used to be in a library for 'library therapy' at least a couple times a month.

Back in the store, I came across one of my favorite Discworld books, Thief of Time. (Of course I have all these books in storage in California, but it was cheaper to buy it here than to ship it.) I bought it, among others.

I picked it up a couple days ago and settled in for a good read. I came across this passage: “Wen considered the nature of time and understood that the universe is, instant by instant, re-created 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 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.”

Stopped me cold. I marvel at the skill of the author to bung this into a very funny, slyly observant, sort-of science fiction book. And thanked the Universe for the reminder: The perfect moment is now. Be glad of it.