faithfulson | Voicemail ~ Mask or Menace

Believe me, I understand.

[ If he hadn't blown up the Death Star, he wondered how long he would have been able to stay hidden before Darth Vader found him... Probably not long, knowing his father, but definitely longer than he did. ]

But Josh is right; I welcome a new perspective on the Force. This place has made me... question a lot of what I've learned.

Oh? What sort of questions?

[ Kanan is interested now. And wondering if these are similar questions Ezra might have if he ever shows up - it might be good practice. ]

I just... something that sticks out most to me is Master Yoda told me the future is always in motion. But here, we're taken from a point in time... but others are brought in from further along our timelines as if we never left.

[ He let out a faint breath. ]

It makes me believe that maybe the future is set.

Hm. Yeah, I don't pretend to have all the answers there. But - here's a thought. Can both those things be true? Maybe certain things will happen regardless, but that doesn't mean there isn't a possibility for variation. For mitigating or exacerbating outcomes through our actions.

Possibly... my nephew thinks that our being brought here creates alternate worlds. I don't know if he still believes that after being ported out once.

That may also be true.

[ Kanan pauses for a moment, thinking. ]

Do you know the Jedi Code? We learned a couple different versions when I was a youngling.

Ahh...

[ Good thing this was voice. He didn't want a stranger to see him blushing ~~not that it would make a difference~~. ]

No. My training was a little... urgent.

[ It's voice, but Kanan is practiced at picking up vocal clues by now. Pitfalls of conversing with a blind guy. So -- ]

Hey, we all do what we have to do, given our individual circumstances. I'm only sorry you didn't have the time. In a way, none of us ever has enough time.

Like I said, there are a few different versions of the Code, but I've always liked the oldest and simplest one best. It goes,

"Emotion, yet peace,
Ignorance, yet knowledge,
Passion, yet serenity,
Chaos, yet harmony,
Death, yet the Force."

What I like about it is that it acknowledges the duality of existence, it doesn't try to deny it. It's not one or the other. It's always both.

[ Luke needed a moment to process that, falling quiet as he played the words over again in his head. ]

That... doesn't sound like what Master Yoda taught me.

Master Yoda was one of the greatest and wisest of the Order.

[ Kanan pauses for a moment, thinking. ]

But he was only one Jedi. There used to be a lot more. And they were all people, with different experiences, and opinions, and interpretations of the philosophy.

I bet Master Yoda taught you what he thought you needed to know, given your specific circumstances.

[ Again, Luke is quiet a moment, and when he speaks again, his voice is a little strained. ]

...yeah. Pretty sure he did.

Like I said, we all have to work with the time and resources we've got. I've had to truncate and simplify a lot of my own Padawan's training, for some of the same reasons I suspect were true in your case.

There's just... a lot. The Jedi Order was my entire life until I was fourteen, and I was only beginning to scratch the surface when it all came crashing down.

Hopefully here you can learn more.

[ He doubted he was training his Padawan to learn the Force and go off and kill his Sith Lord father, so he wasn't going to comment on that. ]

I hope so too; I need to find what my place is in all of this.

That's always easier said than done. But I'm always happy to chat, or help however I can. Do you know NeoJedha, in Maurtia Falls?

Yes! I go there often with a family friend to train.

That's great. I'm there more and more often lately - I've kinda taken over a lot of the admin stuff since Cassian left us. When I'm not doing that I teach some meditation classes - you're always welcome to join, if you want.

I definitely will. My ability to meditate is... bad. We'll go with bad.

[ Like father like son in this case. ]

I can only imagine it's difficult when you haven't been trained to it from a very young age - but in my experience most people can get something out of it with enough practice.

It really is. I either get nothing at all from it, or I end up lost in visions for hours. There's no in between.

Expecting something may be part of your problem. Meditation is really just about finding your center and letting yourself be one with the Force - whatever form that takes. Even if it's essentially "nothing".

...I never thought of it that way.

I think it's pretty common - I used to dislike meditation for much the same reasons. I thought - I don't know, that the Force should be working for me, not the other way around. Or I maybe just didn't see the value in peace and quiet. These days, I like reaching out, feeling myself part of something bigger.

[ Luke let out a snort. ]

Peace and quiet? Here?

[ With so many Skywalkers in one place? H A H A H A ]

That just keeps coming up in short supply these days.

Kid, I've spent the past several years living in close quarters with two angry teenagers, a murderous astromech and a Lasat who smells worse than all of them combined most of the time. If I can find ways to meditate in that situation, you can do it here.

[ He clicks his tongue a bit. ]

I maintain a space at NeoJedha for it, though I also enjoy doing it outside, too. There's lots of nice parks in Heropa especially.

[ ...that sounds worse than Chewie on a bad day. Luke winced in sympathy. ]

Y-yeah, some of the parks here are nice. This is the smaller of the towns we can live in, so it's definitely more peaceful in general.

Voicemail ~ Mask or Menace

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