Terry Pratchett is a genius and here is a exerpt:
The hole speech on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIILp0jiXGs
WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU HADN’T SAVED HIM?
’Yes! The sun would not have risen just the same, yes?’
NO.
’Oh come on. You can’t expect me to believe that. it’s an astronomical fact.’
THE SUN WOULD NOT HAVE RISEN.
She turned to him.
’It’s been a long night, Grandfather! I’m tired and I need a bath! I don’t need silliness!’
THE SUN WOULD NOT HAVE RISEN.
’Really? Then what would have happened, pray?’
A MERE BALL OF FLAMING GAS WOULD HAVE ILLUMINATED THE WORLD.
They walked in silence for a moment.
’Ah,’ said Susan dully. ’Trickery with words. I would have thought you’d have been more literal-minded than that.’
I AM NOTHING IF NOT LITERAL-MINDED. TRICKERY WITH WORDS IS WHERE HUMANS LIVE.
’All right,’ said Susan. ’I’m not stupid. You are saying humans need ... fantasies to make life bearable.’
REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
’Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little ---’
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
’So we can believe the big ones?’
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.
’They’re not the same at all!’
YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET --- Death waved a hand: AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME ... SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WITCH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
’Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what’s the point ---’
MY POINT EXACTLY.
She tried to assemble her thoughts.
THERE IS A PLACE WHERE TWO GALAXIES HAVE BEEN COLLIDING FOR A MILLION YEARS, said Death, apropos of nothing. DON’T TRY TO TELL ME THAT’S RIGHT.
’Yes, but people don’t think about that,’ said Susan. Somewhere there was a bed ...
CORRECT. STARS EXPLODE, WORLDS COLLIDE, THERE’S HARDLY ANYWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE WHERE HUMANS CAN LIVE WITHOUT BEING FROZEN OR FRIED, AND YET YOU BELIEVE THAT A ... BED IS A NORMAL THING. IT IS THE MOST AMAZING TALENT.
’Talent?’
OH, YES. A VERY SPECIAL KIND OF STUPIDITY. YOU THINK THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IS INSIDE YOUR HEADS.
’You make us sound mad,’ said Susan. A nice warm bed ...
NO. YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN’T TRUE. HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME? said Death helping her up on Binky.
It is a remarkable speech and really put into perspective (for me) emotions. You can't quantify happiness or sadness or pain but yet they are real. You can't measure them or exert some sort of force on them but they affect us and how we act in the world and with each other.
And there is another way of thinking about each other as well. The way we each think of ourselves is not exactly the same as what our friends or family or strangers think of us. And each of those people in turn have a slightly different view of who each of us are and they are not any more wrong than we are right about ourselves. I think a culmination of all those perspectives of us BEGINS to make us who we are. Certainly I have more influence on how I am perceived but I certainly can't make someone experience me exactly as I would like.
There are invisible energies, the positive and negative forces of an atom. We can't see those and yet they are there. We can't see gravity and yet it keeps us from spinning into space. (well technically we are spinning in space but I digress)
Anyways - it comes to what I was originally thinking when I decided to quote Terry Pratchett in the Hogfather.
I was lighting the first fire of the season in the fireplace and was thankful for everything surrounding it. The heat from it would warm the house as the temperatures drop tonight and I began to think on that invisible wave of heat and how one measures it with the flowing of mercury. And the happiness it provided which has no measurement.
What can you not measure?
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