Fragment of a Dialogue

The following fragment was recovered from a Jedi temple associated with the Bendu heretic sect.

Monks Fishing, Salvatore Rosa, via Wikimedia Commons

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Novice

What is the Force?

Master

The action of the mind.

Novice

What is the mind?

Master

Consider a plover, a small bird. It has many parts: a head, a beak, a tail, two eyes, two feet, two wings, a heart, a skeleton, a brain, and more. But the plover doesn’t exist without all or some of these: it is only the coincidence of these parts that make the plover. When it flies it needs its wings, when it digs it follows the commands of its stomach, when its eyes see a grub its beak knows to eat. And so, if it has a “mind,” that mind is the sum of all these parts.

Novice

Surely, this creature cannot use the force!

Master

But there are many such minds. Consider a group of plover, a flock. It has many parts too: many birds, some eggs, a shoreline. When the coast is lighted by the morning sun, the birds know to forage. When one bird sees a predator, the others flee. When a scavenger seeks a nest, the flock will pretend ignorance. So too, the flock has a mind.

Novice

Does it mean nothing then, to have a mind?

Master

You are a mind. Can you not affect the systems you are a part of? If you raise an alarm, does nobody follow? If a friend falls, can you not help them up?
And can you not master the systems that are a part of you? Calm your lungs’ breath? Suppress your stomach’s hunger?

Novice

So this is the Force, to exert influence on these minds?

Master

No. The Force is to know these other minds, and to know your role in them. It is not the stomach’s place to master the eyes. It is to no plover’s advantage to sneak away from a predator unnoticed, if the flock will be lost.

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Sennerin und Mönch, Carl Spitzweg 1838, via Wikimedia Commons.

I’ve been reading Awful Hospital and thinking about Star Wars again.

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