The Training Of Joshua Ferran

[Darth Tremor]

Joshua Ferran was ready for his training. True, he was a lot older than most students, but that didn't mean anything to him. It was time. This was the reason he left home, this was the reason he was born! His master, Sor-Jan Xantha, was there too.

"Master, I want to learn the ways of the light side of the force."

Joshua had always been calm, but this time, he was more calm than ever. Since he got to the training site, he'd been meditating, waiting for his journey to be complete.

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

Always two, a master and an apprentice.

Novices approached that statement with a belief that one could only ever be one or the other. Sor-Jan's own master had viewed his own relationship with his master as one in which he was eternally the 'student' and so, when he had chosen the small Anzat to be his padawan learner, it was with the idea in mind that the Thisspiasian was the forever 'master' and the youngling was only able to bring one thing to the relationship; and that was to learn.

Sometime later, Master Azul Gol had relayed to his padawan than he had sometimes felt that Sor-Jan had taught him more about the Jedi or the nature of the Force than he had learned from the old master.

As a padawan, Sor-Jan hadn't understood his master's meaning. After all, that was 'Master'. And his own name was 'Padawan.' Those were the identities that they had adopted, stepped into, and been chosen to fulfill. So, when Sor-Jan had become a knight and chosen his own padawan, he had repeated the pattern. He had gone into the experience in the belief that his sole role was that of 'master.'

He was very quickly humbled by the spectre of his own arrogance, and recalled to mind the time that his master had spoken of learning more from the student than did the student from the master. In the eight centuries since, the small Anzat had been many things to many different people.

A mentor.

A teacher.

A coach.

But a master? The boy no longer believed in 'masters.' The very concept seemed nothing more than egotistical assumption. Everyone was always learning. And learning from each other. There was no static, one way relationship in any educational environment.

Always two there are, but those two were in constant motion. The teacher would become the student and the student would become the teacher. They would be many things to each other, sometimes even both at once. Their shared experiences becoming lessons learned together. So the boy was happy to receive this new student, because it meant that he was about to embark on new challenges he might not otherwise have experienced. Bowing humbly toward the student, the smaller boy offered this in reply. "It shall be my honor to instruct you."

Gesturing toward a low table set for tea, the boy offered the other youngling a seat. "Please, join me," the Anzat offered. The two were both younglings, seemingly close in age. [member="Joshua Ferran"] was a head taller though, by appearances the elder of the pair. Which perhaps spoke to one of the basic lessons of how the eyes could deceive.

"My name is Sor-Jan," the youngling knight said, as he sat and poured some tea for them both. "Tell me of yourself."

 

[Darth Tremor]

It was time. Joshua sat there looking at the other youngling. The tea was very delicious. He hadn't had tea this good since he was eight. The youngling was going to be Joshua's teacher. They would indeed learn from each other. The whole Jedi Path isn't just one teaching, and one learning, it was both doing both roles.

"My name is Joshua Ferran, I left my home to join the Jedi. I am here, eager to learn the Force, and use it for a greater good."

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

Ah, ubiquitous righteousness.

"...the greater good," the small Consular echoed, holding up a cup of tea and blowing on it gently to cool it before taking a sip. A tasting the familiar bitter splash of the tea hit his tongue. What an interesting place from which to start his training. When Sor-Jan had been his age, he might well have said the same, and likely not been as eloquent about it. "The greater good," the boy mused a second time, as though pondering where to begin there.

Were he a Jedi Guardian, he might have agreed.

A Sith may have as well, except the 'greater good' would be whatever advanced the Sith's own knowledge or power. It was easy to categorize what they did not understand as 'evil' and associate that entirely with selfishness. But the adherents of the Dark Side were not necessarily selfish as much as they were self-serving. But one could still create the appearance of catering or caring for others, even while lining their own pockets. Certainly, for years, the whole of the galaxy had come to believe that Chacellor Palpatine had been acting in the collective interests of more than a hundred star systems.

Except, the boy was a Jedi Consular. And philosophy was more a weapon to him than any lightsaber. Ideology became the armor that served as his defense. Sharpened the wits and honed the mind. And there was no more powerful weapon in the galaxy than that of human thought. "How does one determine what is 'good'?" the boy asked, setting his tea down as he looked over at the young apprentice. It was a rhetorical question, which left it up for open-ended debate, and so the boy added a few leading questions to help inform the discussion. "Is there an empirical measurement for determining if one good is greater than the next? Or a standard?"

[member="Joshua Ferran"]​

 

[Darth Tremor]

"Interesting question."

Joshua thought for a moment. The greater good. Yes, that's right, the greater good. He kept hold of his tea, and showed it to his new master.

"Do you see this teacup? Inside it is tea. A liquid that we drink. Tea is made with water. Water is what we need to live. Living is peace. A full teacup contains the soil to life. If the teacup was empty, we would have no water to survive. And chaos would begin. A full teacup, my master, is the greater good. Peace, is the greater good."

He let his head hang low, waiting for a response.

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

A metaphor in tea.

An interesting choice. Nodding, the young Anzat pondered aloud, “And what if people have peace but not freedom? Live in fear beneath an oppressive regime? Is peace still the greater good in that scenario?”

Perhaps it was time to take this out of the hypothetical and into the practical. "An import tax is justified to support a struggling domestic industry. A price control is justified as keeping a product affordable. Or obliteration bombing can be justified as shortening a war," the youngling knight mused aloud, citing two economic examples before applying a political-military in the third. "Each of these examples would purport to bring about a greater good from the perspective of those who propose them. And, in that, the people proposing honestly believe that they may be achieving a good in spite of the costs. But therein lies the difference between honesty and truth."

Extending a hand out toward a bowl of fruit on the table, the Anzat stretched out with his feelings. One by one, the pieces in the bowl rose from out of the air, levitating in slow orbits over the table. "The Force connects all living things," the boy advised. "Be mindful of the Living Force, and how your actions, or inaction, affects those around you."

Gesturing toward one of the orbiting fruit, the boy said, "Stretch out with your feelings. See if you can move one of them."

[member="Joshua Ferran"]​

 

[Darth Tremor]

"I have an interesting taste in metaphors."

Joshua sat back in his chair and looked at the fruit in which his master had asked him to moved. They were average sized fruits, such as apples, oranges, pears, etc.

He closed his eyes, and attempted to levitate the fruit. Immediately, he opened them. Joshua was barely lifting an apple off the table, only about a centimeter from it. He kept moving it, to see what the force could do. Eventually, he dropped it back into the bowl.