planetarywho:

And the lilacs are in bloom, again

It’s the 25th, and that means something. It’s a day for remembering, in that weird way where everyone who read about an event and was touched by it feels like they were there. And, one can argue, we were. We stood by Sam Vimes, we saw the the dead and the wounded, we lost hope and we found it again. Just like, in a similar manner, we were all with Sir Pratchett when me left us, and we stood by his grave from a distance, and we waved to Death.

Fiction can be meaningful. Fiction writers have the power to be, with that, the most meaningful people out there. They create stories that change our lives, or at least help us define them. They explain what was hard to understand otherwise. They help us cope. They are friends, and family, and always there, with their words. They are not always nice, or kind, because nice and kind don’t mean good or important, necessarily. They do the work that’s in front of them, and create the world that needs creating.

I haven’t read all the Discworld books. Some of them are being kept in a precious place, to visit when everything seems lost and hopeless, and when life outside books is not completely bearable. But the Watch books are, somehow, the ones I’m constantly returning to, reading all of them again and again, like old friends. And Night Watch has a special place, a particular meaning to me. It’s my favourite, yes, but that’s nothing but a definition, and this novel is much more.

I tried student politics once, quite a few years ago. I was at a University, and that’s the kind of thing people do there. It’s a long and frustrating story, but it made me very jaded when it comes to people selling revolutions. I like change. I love change. Life without a healthy dose of chaos is not worth living. But I’m a historian, and if there’s something we learn, is that change rarely comes from big, official and organized revolutions. It comes from people moving things around, changing little details, making their lives better.

And that’s Sam Vimes’ approach. He doesn’t waist lives, but he changes everything around him. He makes a difference.

Night Watch is a sad book. It makes you remember that human beings can be the most foul creatures on the planet. It makes you cry, and want to punch something, and feel bad about existing. It is also beautiful, and hopeful, and proof that we can be much more. It is one person changing the world not by being rich, or powerful, or well connected, but by thinking, and caring about the people around him, by trying to keep his street safe. It is proof that no gesture is too small, for good or bad, and that we have no clue how they will affect those around us. It tells us to keep trying to do the best we can, and not to find excuses.

Remembering the Glorious 25th is important because we all need it. It has a piece of us in it, and it holds part of what made us. It is truth, justice, freedom, reasonably priced love, and a hard boiled egg. It is the lilac in bloom, and Little Sam’s birthday. It is when we held the line, and weeped.

All the little angels rise up, rise up.

All the little angels rise up high!

How do they rise up, rise up, rise up?

How do they rise up, rise up high?

They rise heads up, heads up, heads up,

They rise heads up, heads up high!