Happy "Glorious 25th of May" Day
GNU Sir Terry Pratchett
There aren’t a whole lot of things that I’m embarrassed to admit these days. I’m aiming for transparency in my life as much as possible, and that includes this gem:
Some books make me cry.
And I don’t mean a single, stoic, manly tear that comes to one’s eye or something.
No, full on shoulder heaving, soul-cleansing sobs.
Why? Because they speak to the human condition. They reveal truths that are deep within all of us. And Sir Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch is one of the best of those. A story about one of the most flawed-yet-in-the-act-of-being-redeemed characters I have ever read, Samuel Vimes, through a series of misadventures, interacting with his younger self and dealing with the grief over the fact that you can’t change the mistakes of the past because that would too irrevokably change who and what you are now.
Plus, there’s Vimes INCREDIBLE sense of reality:
"'You'd like Freedom, Truth, and Justice, wouldn't you, Comrade Sergeant?' said Reg encouragingly.
'I'd like a hard-boiled egg,' said Vimes, shaking the match out.
There was some nervous laughter, but Reg looked offended.
'In the circumstances, Sergeant, I think we should set our sights a little higher--'
'Well, yes, we could,' said Vimes, coming down the steps. He glanced at the sheets of papers in front of Reg. The man cared. He really did. And he was serious. He really was. 'But...well, Reg, tomorrow the sun will come up again, and I'm pretty sure that whatever happens we won't have found Freedom, and there won't be a whole lot of Justice, and I'm damn sure we won't have found Truth. But it's just possible that I might get a hard-boiled egg.'"
~Terry Pratchett, Night Watch
I’m sharing all of this with you because a) there is a “revolution” that occurs on the 25th of May, so it’s a bit of a holiday, and b) because there are two excellent messages for anyone who is building a team (there are actually so SO many more really amazing lessons in this book. I should do a whole series of posts that teach “Forget about Zen, Sam Vimes and the Art of Leadership”):
Mistakes will always be made. In your life. In your business. With your team. It isn’t about not making them or going back and undoing them. It’s about learning from them and doing better in the future.
Lofty ideals are amazing. They capture the imagination and give people things to dream about. HAVE THEM. But make sure you also have a tangible goal or two, because you can’t eat lofty ideals.
If you find yourself curious, the City Watch part of the Discworld novels are well worth the read and start with “Guards, Guards!”. Despite definitely being adult books, I’ve read all of them outloud to my kids and I genuinely feel like these books have helped to make the kids into the honest and fair-minded people that they are today. 12 out of 10, would recommend.