He is one of the few people in this world I am angry with myself never to have met in person. He was a character full of diversities, controversies and fantasy. One may like or distest his writing, but there is no mistaking the man was larger than life. Raising funds is just another facet of this true and living wizard, for Orang Utans as well as for dementia prevention and cure. An astronomer as well, as a man with a good humour and an affinity for good dark ale;-), what inspires me most of all is that he forged his own sword.
Now readers of my blog might have got an idea that it might not be exactly easy to smelt your own iron ore, even as an accomplished blacksmith. But this is exactly what Terry Pratchett did, as soon as he had been knighted by the Queen Of England.
He just went outside, collected some iron ore, smelted it with some friends in the garden of his house, and "chucked in some meteorites, you just have to use them, whether you believe in it or not". Then he went to a blacksmith to learn how to hammer it out and to quench it. Even more awe-inspiring is that this came out:
source:http://static02.mediaite.com/themarysue/uploads//2010/09/Terrys-Sword.jpeg
What I want to say is that he had a dream, and lived this dream. He already had Alzheimer disease then, and cannot have been an absolute amateur in metalworking, but he still created something this beautiful. Because he wanted to. His coat of arms has the credo embossed:
Noli Timere Messorem (Don't fear the reaper)
I personally have the impression that this is a personal achievement he had accomplished, dying surrounded by his family with his cat sleeping in his lap. He had lived his dream, but he has never lived in a dream. The discworld novels might often appear as slapstick humour, but if you read them thoroughly you will notice a dimension that is both humane, friendly and more silent smile than laughter. He has never made a secret out of the fact that he has always been more of a sceptic seeker of the truth, but he really and honestly sought the spiritual dimension "on the other side of physics". Radicals of any religion will detest that and hate him for that, but, if you read his articles closely, you get some weird ideas about peace being actually possible. And not because he ordered you to, but because what he says makes a sort of sense.
He certainly has inspired me. To forge my own sword, that too, but to live according to my heart. And if I am honest, the one topic has a lot to do with the other.
Might be one day we will meet beyond the black desert under the endless night sky to smile upon the quest for the place where the gods come from we all were on. I do not know if I fear the reaper. I daresay I do, but there´s nothing I could do but live according to my heart, and Terry Pratchett inspired me to do this with his life.
Thanks.
