Those blasted attachments...
Bonzo walks into Dooku's room, largely unannounced (except by whatever Force signature he might make by entering a room).
"Master, could I speak with you for a moment?"
"Do come in." And learn to knock and ask permission before entering, if you please...
"Thank you."
Bonzo walks in, and glances at an empty chair in the room, which Dooku gestures for him to sit in.
"What is on your mind, Padawan?"
"I had another bad dream."
"Could you elaborate more? I mean, there are such things as random bad dreams, you know."
"Yes, but this one troubled me in a strange way."
"Go on."
"I dreamt that I had a choice between surviving a war by hiding, and seeing everything that I knew in ruins, or fighting to defend it and dying in the process."
"This relates to the...impending crisis that appears to be coming on your world?"
Bonzo nods, solemnly. As much as he hates to admit it, that mess has reared its ugly head.
"What did you choose in your dream?"
"At the start, I had chosen to survive, but when I saw the option to go down fighting, I decided that I preferred that."
"Who were you fighting in this war?"
"I am not certain...it may have been the International Fleet, though I am inclined to think the Russians."
Dooku ponders this.
"You do not know who your opponent is, but you felt that it was better to die fighting them than to avoid the coming war with them, correct?"
"Yes."
"Bonzo, I do suspect that you have not yet let go of all of your anger. If the Colonel Graff who set you up to die in that fight were to walk in the door right now, how would you react?"
Dooku doesn't even wait for Bonzo to respond before working on his conclusion...Bonzo's face does enough talking, and his thoughts are also not what one would call well-concealed, either. Bonzo, in the meantime, gets a funny feeling that lying won't help things, since Dooku does have at the very least a decent ability to read faces, if not glance into minds.
"Master, you are right."
"Go on."
"It is extremely difficult to forgive someone who did that to you."
"But you do not need to forgive to let go of your anger. Think about it."
Bonzo looks confused at the thought, but he does consider it for a long moment.
"If I decide that, while the offense remains unforgivable but that it will not affect my future judgements, will that be enough?"
"Not exactly. It should go into considering the character of this Graff should you encounter him in the future; he is, to all appearances, a man of flawed character and questionable morals. But at the same time, if you let your irritation with him guide your actions, rather than just the record of what he has done serve as a reference for judgement in the future, you endanger your ability to deal properly with a situation. And if you allow your disdain for him to affect your opinion of the International Fleet, which he is not in control of by any stretch of the imagination based on what you say, then you could very easily take the side of a greater evil in response to that."
Bonzo looks momentarily confused, so Dooku decides to clear it up a bit.
"When you let go of something, you release your attachment to it. However, you do not release the memory of it. Rather, it becomes a piece of information that goes into your reading of a situation, along with all of the other things that you know, rather than something that overrides simple facts. As it stands now, would not your anger with Graff affect which side you might pick in a war?"
There is a nod in the affirmative from Bonzo.
"In that case, it is an attachment. Clearly such actions are grounds for mistrust. But they are little more; from his rank, this Graff could clearly have only been so high in the official chain of command, after all. They do not necessarily represent a problem with a system, merely an individual."
Bonzo sighs, admitting the reality of things.
"Master, how should I distinguish between something that is an attachment and something that is information?"
"That is very difficult to do in many cases. I might provide some advice to help you with your problem right now that may help give you answers to your question as well."
"Yes, Master?"
"When choosing who you will support, do not allow personal benefits or costs to become part of your decision. Your duty is simply to support that which is right, which benefits all, without consideration of yourself in the process. Attachments make you view things in a way which is not representative of reality, but rather representative of a mis-valued reality. Letting go of them, which you must do, will permit you to see things as they truly are, rather than as you wish to see them."
Bonzo nods.
"I shall consider this, Master."
"Very well. Thank you for telling me about this...I will think about that dream. I suspect that it was not symbolic...it feels more like a manifestation of something that has been troubling you."
"I agree. Thank you very much."
Bonzo stands, bows slightly (something he still wasn't used to doing), and leaves.
"Master, could I speak with you for a moment?"
"Do come in." And learn to knock and ask permission before entering, if you please...
"Thank you."
Bonzo walks in, and glances at an empty chair in the room, which Dooku gestures for him to sit in.
"What is on your mind, Padawan?"
"I had another bad dream."
"Could you elaborate more? I mean, there are such things as random bad dreams, you know."
"Yes, but this one troubled me in a strange way."
"Go on."
"I dreamt that I had a choice between surviving a war by hiding, and seeing everything that I knew in ruins, or fighting to defend it and dying in the process."
"This relates to the...impending crisis that appears to be coming on your world?"
Bonzo nods, solemnly. As much as he hates to admit it, that mess has reared its ugly head.
"What did you choose in your dream?"
"At the start, I had chosen to survive, but when I saw the option to go down fighting, I decided that I preferred that."
"Who were you fighting in this war?"
"I am not certain...it may have been the International Fleet, though I am inclined to think the Russians."
Dooku ponders this.
"You do not know who your opponent is, but you felt that it was better to die fighting them than to avoid the coming war with them, correct?"
"Yes."
"Bonzo, I do suspect that you have not yet let go of all of your anger. If the Colonel Graff who set you up to die in that fight were to walk in the door right now, how would you react?"
Dooku doesn't even wait for Bonzo to respond before working on his conclusion...Bonzo's face does enough talking, and his thoughts are also not what one would call well-concealed, either. Bonzo, in the meantime, gets a funny feeling that lying won't help things, since Dooku does have at the very least a decent ability to read faces, if not glance into minds.
"Master, you are right."
"Go on."
"It is extremely difficult to forgive someone who did that to you."
"But you do not need to forgive to let go of your anger. Think about it."
Bonzo looks confused at the thought, but he does consider it for a long moment.
"If I decide that, while the offense remains unforgivable but that it will not affect my future judgements, will that be enough?"
"Not exactly. It should go into considering the character of this Graff should you encounter him in the future; he is, to all appearances, a man of flawed character and questionable morals. But at the same time, if you let your irritation with him guide your actions, rather than just the record of what he has done serve as a reference for judgement in the future, you endanger your ability to deal properly with a situation. And if you allow your disdain for him to affect your opinion of the International Fleet, which he is not in control of by any stretch of the imagination based on what you say, then you could very easily take the side of a greater evil in response to that."
Bonzo looks momentarily confused, so Dooku decides to clear it up a bit.
"When you let go of something, you release your attachment to it. However, you do not release the memory of it. Rather, it becomes a piece of information that goes into your reading of a situation, along with all of the other things that you know, rather than something that overrides simple facts. As it stands now, would not your anger with Graff affect which side you might pick in a war?"
There is a nod in the affirmative from Bonzo.
"In that case, it is an attachment. Clearly such actions are grounds for mistrust. But they are little more; from his rank, this Graff could clearly have only been so high in the official chain of command, after all. They do not necessarily represent a problem with a system, merely an individual."
Bonzo sighs, admitting the reality of things.
"Master, how should I distinguish between something that is an attachment and something that is information?"
"That is very difficult to do in many cases. I might provide some advice to help you with your problem right now that may help give you answers to your question as well."
"Yes, Master?"
"When choosing who you will support, do not allow personal benefits or costs to become part of your decision. Your duty is simply to support that which is right, which benefits all, without consideration of yourself in the process. Attachments make you view things in a way which is not representative of reality, but rather representative of a mis-valued reality. Letting go of them, which you must do, will permit you to see things as they truly are, rather than as you wish to see them."
Bonzo nods.
"I shall consider this, Master."
"Very well. Thank you for telling me about this...I will think about that dream. I suspect that it was not symbolic...it feels more like a manifestation of something that has been troubling you."
"I agree. Thank you very much."
Bonzo stands, bows slightly (something he still wasn't used to doing), and leaves.