Latest / Most Things Kenobi - A Star Wars Podcast / Episode 142: Were the Jedi Wrong About Attachment?
Transcript
- 0:00It's most things Kenobi. We always have the high ground.
- 0:17Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of
- 0:20Most Things Kenobi, a podcast about Obi Wan Kenobi and all
- 0:24things Star Wars. I'm your host, Leanne.
- 0:27And I'm your host, Lauren. And this week, we're criticizing
- 0:30the Jedi Order, No? Pretty.
- 0:35Much. Maybe not.
- 0:36We're talking about the topic of attachment and what it means.
- 0:45Why were the Jedi so against it? It's it's human.
- 0:49Are they dehumanizing individuals by for forbading it?
- 0:53Forbidding it? Something.
- 0:55That's a word. Forbidding for, bad for.
- 1:00Well, I mean they they, they checked it off the list of
- 1:03things you you can't have. So we're going to just kind of
- 1:06explore that because I find it interesting.
- 1:08I've been thinking about the topic of attachment lately and
- 1:13in fact attachment everyone has like an attachment style that
- 1:18they grow up with. There's like 4 main types,
- 1:21Secure, non secure, anxious, you know, all those psychological
- 1:26things. Codependent.
- 1:28Is that one of those? Yeah, I think that's in there
- 1:30somewhere actually. I think it goes like this secure
- 1:35attachment, anxious resistant attachment, avoidant attachment,
- 1:41and disorganized attachment. So those are the types of
- 1:45attachment styles that children show.
- 1:47And I want to talk about this because the Jedi specifically
- 1:51take children away. They try to take them as early
- 1:55as they can, right? That was the problem with
- 1:57Anakin. And I didn't even know you were
- 1:59gonna take this approach. This is great.
- 2:01I've never heard of these attachment styles.
- 2:03Oh, well, I I have a type. That's why I know about this,
- 2:07'cause my therapist goes over it with me.
- 2:08I have anxious. I have an anxious attachment.
- 2:12Who knew? But it forms when you're in your
- 2:18childhood. It's not an excuse for behavior,
- 2:21but it is a way to understand why some people act the way they
- 2:24do. My point of bringing this up is
- 2:28they don't even get a chance to in the Jedi Order 'cause they
- 2:31take them so early. And I wonder, is that part of
- 2:35their goal? I mean, if you're trying to
- 2:37program behavior, yeah, you wanna take somebody before,
- 2:42really before you're I think 7 and definitely before you're 25
- 2:47'cause that's when your frontal cortex finishes developing.
- 2:50Right. And that was the Trouble with
- 2:52Anakin, volume one. The trouble with Anakin is that
- 2:58he was too old, quote, UN quote. I mean, we've we've talked about
- 3:01this a lot on the show. Did it contribute to his
- 3:05attachment? Let me, let me, let me just
- 3:07interject this. All of the Jedi were attached in
- 3:11some way. I don't give a fuck.
- 3:14I think it's a normal human emotion and to cause like
- 3:19Buddhism and Zen Buddhism, maybe more specifically, I don't know.
- 3:23They teach this like it's not a lack of attachment, but it is
- 3:27managing expectations, like a lack of expectation so that you
- 3:32don't get so attached to an idea that you are constantly
- 3:36disappointed. If you want to talk about that,
- 3:40that's like a more healthy, normal sense of lack, quote, UN
- 3:45quote of attachment. I feel like what the Jedi were
- 3:47teaching was not healthy. No, the in fact the Jedi believe
- 3:53in non attachment. That connection is important,
- 3:57encouraged, but not to the extent that one foregoes all
- 4:01else in pursuit of it. And I can't help but think of
- 4:04motherfucking Anakin. Yeah.
- 4:07Possession. There's so different ways to
- 4:10look at it, right? Because Anakin, like you said,
- 4:13is possessive. Yeah, but also he, I would
- 4:17imagine, would have anxious attachment considering his
- 4:20childhood. But I don't know, 'cause I
- 4:22don't, I don't know the official definitions, but to be taken
- 4:26from your mother would and like be a slave would probably make
- 4:30you an anxious person, I would guess.
- 4:33Yes. So Psychology Today, I have the
- 4:36definitions up from psychologytoday.com.
- 4:40So I mean, if there are any professionals out there, you
- 4:44know, don't hold it against us. If these are not exactly
- 4:47correct, OK, secure attachment. Children with secure attachment
- 4:52may be distressed upon separation but warmly welcome
- 4:55the caregiver back through eye contact and hug seeking.
- 4:59Anxious attachment describes a child who is frightened by
- 5:01separation and continues to display anxious behavior once
- 5:05the caregiver returns. Avoidant attachment denotes a
- 5:09child who reacts fairly calmly to a parent separation and does
- 5:12not embrace their return. And disorganized attachment is
- 5:16manifest in odd or ambivalent behavior towards the caregiver
- 5:20upon return, approaching, then turning away from or even
- 5:23hitting the caregiver, and maybe the result of childhood trauma.
- 5:28So it's it's just the way of their how secure they are as a
- 5:31child. My dog has the second one.
- 5:35Anxious resistant attachment. Well, me and Luna are one in the
- 5:41same. Yeah, it's just it's interesting
- 5:46because the topic of attachment is so crazy.
- 5:50I get it and I don't because of the Buddhist thing that you were
- 5:53talking about. In fact, I have a note here.
- 5:56It says the Jedi trying to, you know, teach this thing about
- 6:01attachment. They wanted to teach that by
- 6:03accepting that the universe is not there for them to control,
- 6:07but to understand and nurture, then they are constantly making
- 6:12choices for the betterment of those around them, instead of
- 6:14simply thinking of themselves. Yes, which?
- 6:18Which I'm wholly here for. Yeah, that's very noble.
- 6:21Like. Change is a part of life.
- 6:23You you can't resist it. You have to move with it.
- 6:25You have to accept it's. You can't control anything
- 6:30besides yourself. Right.
- 6:32And then I think of Obi Wan and Satine.
- 6:35He was in full control of himself, cared deeply for her,
- 6:40but was also allowed to let her go, Not control her, not try to
- 6:44control the situation. It is what it is.
- 6:47You've had feelings, but he had a job too.
- 6:50Right, I do. Isn't there a line that I think
- 6:53Anakin says that they're allowed to love, they're just not
- 6:58supposed to feel an attachment that would distract them from
- 7:02their duty? And I've kind of played around
- 7:06with this idea in my fix because it is something that happens
- 7:09with Obi Wan. It's the teen Obi Wan is
- 7:12attached to her in a healthy way, like you just said, where
- 7:17he's able to let her go and do her thing and he's going to stay
- 7:20a Jedi. He's made that decision.
- 7:22But because of the attachment, Moll then uses her against him.
- 7:29And so there's that other side to the coin where attachment can
- 7:33put the people you're attached to in danger, because they can
- 7:37be used against you, because you have this human nature to want
- 7:41to, like, save the ones you love.
- 7:43Which is what happens with Anakin.
- 7:46The Jedi have taken on this mantle of the betterment for all
- 7:51as opposed to themselves. But they're humans or well,
- 7:55yeah, not they're not all humans necessarily, right.
- 7:58But you know what I'm saying? So they have emotion and they
- 8:03have attachment and they have love.
- 8:05So it puts them in this position of being able to manipulate them
- 8:11if they unless they're completely cold hearted and
- 8:14unmoved by a threat against somebody they love.
- 8:18What's her name? Which one you got to narrow it
- 8:23down, Adia Gal, What is it not Adia Galia.
- 8:27Oh, God bless her. No, the other one Luminar,
- 8:30Luminar. Why can't I ever remember her
- 8:32name and I'm always ready to shit talk her?
- 8:35Terrible. I don't know.
- 8:37She seems very detached, but she probably hasn't had anyone
- 8:42killed in front of her either in the way that Maul killed Satine.
- 8:46I guess, yeah. I mean at the in the the
- 8:49genotion arc where her Padawan and then Ahsoka, they get
- 8:52trapped right away. She's ready to just let go
- 8:56without even trying really to rescue them.
- 9:00So, like, Anakin's one extreme of being, like, we got to do it
- 9:04now, and she's the other extreme of, well, they're gone.
- 9:07I wonder if that was done on purpose to show there's two
- 9:10polar opposites in a situation like this and no, no one is
- 9:15completely correct. Yeah, 'cause I've always
- 9:19wondered, and I've heard this said in the Star Wars community,
- 9:23that maybe the whole point of the prequels was to prove that
- 9:27the Jedi were too attached funny to too attached to their ideas,
- 9:34you know? Like the, the, the whole.
- 9:37Point George Lucas was trying to make was that it didn't work and
- 9:40that's why Luke works. But now that's kind of been
- 9:44tossed on its ear by stuff Disney has done.
- 9:47So I don't really know if that's still something you could argue,
- 9:50but I would because we've talked about Luke's form of attachment
- 9:56in the past and how it did not get in his way.
- 10:00No 'cause he was ready to. He was ready to die, whether his
- 10:04father chose him or not. You know, so many words.
- 10:09Whether it worked out or not, he was, he was.
- 10:12He went in there with a choice made like, OK, if this doesn't
- 10:16work out, I'm gonna die. I've accepted it.
- 10:18Yeah. He's not gonna send force
- 10:20lightning at Palpatine or anything, you know?
- 10:24One, his love for Leia and Han didn't stop him from doing his
- 10:29duty. You know, he is that moment in
- 10:30Return of the Jedi where he's talking to Leia and he tells
- 10:33her, like, you have to keep going, even if I don't make it
- 10:35back. And when I was a kid, I didn't
- 10:37realize he meant that I if I die, I just thought he was like,
- 10:41if I can't get back to you, yeah.
- 10:43Yeah, if I can't fly through all that debris.
- 10:46Yeah, exactly. From the all the explosion.
- 10:48I didn't realize. He meant like, if I die, you
- 10:52keep being strong and you keep going.
- 10:54I have to go do this like I have to.
- 10:56My love for you is not going to stop me from doing that.
- 10:58So that, I think, is the healthier perspective that
- 11:03George Lucas was trying to teach.
- 11:06And so when people hold up the Jedi as like, the best thing
- 11:10ever, I think maybe the point of the prequel supposed to show
- 11:14that even though they were noble, that extremism ultimately
- 11:20kind of led to their vulnerability.
- 11:23Possibly. You just reminded me of The Last
- 11:26Jedi. That is exactly what he told
- 11:28Leia and then went on to do. And she had to live without him
- 11:32afterwards. You know, after The Last Jedi.
- 11:38But you know that that made me think of that moment.
- 11:41And now that I think about it further, Leia is kind of non
- 11:46attached to her son in a way that she doesn't let Ben's
- 11:50behavior, we'll say, cause her to lose sight of, you know,
- 11:57what's in front of her. It says here non attachment
- 12:00allows for empathy without being obsessive.
- 12:03It allows for compassion and love without being so caught up
- 12:06in how it makes you feel over other people.
- 12:09It leads to a selfless approach to feelings and a consideration
- 12:12for others that detachment does not allow for interesting, which
- 12:18is ponderous because it's not saying being detached but just
- 12:23non attached, which the Jedi believe in.
- 12:29Connection is important, encouraged, but not to the
- 12:31extent that one forgoes all else in pursuit of it, which
- 12:35literally Anakin forgoes everything like everything.
- 12:41And then when Leia excuse me when Padme dies, he then sets
- 12:47his sights on Obi Wan. Mm hmm.
- 12:50And Palpatine has to be like, come back here and focus on the
- 12:53universe or the Galaxy around us.
- 12:56Quit focusing on this one, dude. You have a grudge against.
- 13:01That's true. It's interesting.
- 13:03Anakin becomes obsessed. Insanely, it's easy.
- 13:08Yeah, it's like he's possessive in in a way that does get scary.
- 13:13As we've discussed in The Clone Wars, By the end, he does some,
- 13:16like, really creepy stuff with Rush, Clovis and all that stuff.
- 13:21But you know, he goes from being attached to hyper attached to
- 13:26obsessively possessive to dangerous.
- 13:30And it's a pattern of escalating behavior.
- 13:34But that's not saying that everyone who's attached is going
- 13:38to follow that path, you know? That's correct.
- 13:41And so I think Anakin is an anomaly, honestly, because
- 13:47probably of his upbringing. I think so too.
- 13:50So I guess if he was taken as a super young child and avoided
- 13:55attaching, you know, imprinting on his mother, maybe he wouldn't
- 14:00have had that obsessive behavior.
- 14:03But again that's the kind of question is it doesn't matter
- 14:06like the whole story is that that's the point of the story.
- 14:10So if you. Right.
- 14:10We're not even. We're not even counting the
- 14:13wills in this. Right, exactly.
- 14:16I mean, shit, but I, I, you know, I think of Ahsoka and
- 14:22she's fairly not detached. She's she follows the practice
- 14:26of non attachment. She has tons of empathy.
- 14:30She is always selflessly trying to help whoever's in need, and I
- 14:36think her one attachment to Anakin was that was it.
- 14:41That taught her the lesson. She learned the lesson Anakin
- 14:45didn't and moved on from it. It feels like an empty life.
- 14:52She has friends, you know, but they're always.
- 14:56I guess that's maybe that's OK. Obi Wan seemed so lonely, but he
- 15:01also seemed OK like, 'cause he chose that.
- 15:05Yeah, I think it's it's different for each character.
- 15:08I feel like for Ahsoka, I feel sad about it.
- 15:12For Ahsoka, because she had such warmth and connection with
- 15:17Anakin and Rex, right? And Oh my God, I forgot about
- 15:22Rex. I'm going to forget.
- 15:23About Rex and I feel like she is practicing non attachment
- 15:28because she was hurt so she's like not.
- 15:32I see where the vulnerability is and I'm not letting that in
- 15:36again. And Obi Wan, it was kind of the
- 15:39other way around, where he was attached, but now he's a hermit.
- 15:46And so like I mean. He has a mission to accomplish
- 15:49so and he was he was kind of denying that he was attached all
- 15:53along. So I think it was actually like
- 15:55everyone noticed but him, you know?
- 15:57And it was like a big shock when when it all kind of blew up in
- 16:02his face and Luke became like, if you want to follow the, the
- 16:07Disney plot line that they had for Luke, he isolated himself.
- 16:11I know, like, I don't either, 'cause, as we've said, like it
- 16:14it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 16:16Yeah. Let's not even.
- 16:18For a moment, let us let us consider.
- 16:21Right. But so, like, if you want to
- 16:23look at the path that he did end up taking, that was terrible.
- 16:28I think he was in a lot of pain in his isolation.
- 16:32He he was like depressed and decrepit and angry, and you
- 16:37could see that in the bitterness when he was dealing with Ray.
- 16:40So I don't think his lack of attachment served him.
- 16:44Yeah, yeah. But I also feel like that entire
- 16:49plot was not Luke at all, so. Well, that's why I'm not saying
- 16:53anything. Right.
- 16:55Like, I can argue what was there, but I don't think it was
- 16:59done correctly, honestly. Yeah, it's yes.
- 17:02So I want to ask the question going back to Ahsoka, let's
- 17:08evaluate her attachment to the Jedi Order pre trial.
- 17:15She had formed some sort of belonging, sense of belonging in
- 17:19a group of people she felt cared for by.
- 17:23She respected, they respected her, they gave her a lot of
- 17:25responsibility and they trusted her with it and then they kind
- 17:32of betrayed her through everything that took place with
- 17:36her leaving eventually now does that does the topic of
- 17:43attachment. Is that where it becomes
- 17:45dangerous, that even in that predicament, your sense of
- 17:50belonging, like secure attachment, avoiding all this
- 17:53stuff? You know, your sense of
- 17:54belonging. You're turned away at that
- 17:56point. You feel a sense of betrayal.
- 17:58She did. That's why she chose to leave.
- 18:02Does it dictate your Should it dictate your behavior?
- 18:05In that respect, she was right to feel wronged by them.
- 18:10Yes, I think so. I mean, I think so.
- 18:12I think that she was right to feel wronged.
- 18:15Absolutely. But if she would have had no
- 18:17attachment at all, she would she have just said OK, I'm out or
- 18:21OK, I'm gonna let you treat me like this and I'll stay like you
- 18:24have to have self respect, right?
- 18:26But am I? Am I straying from the topic of
- 18:29attachment? No, I don't think so.
- 18:30I think it's actually complicating it more because
- 18:33you're it's a really good point I think because you're
- 18:37practicing non attachment, right?
- 18:39You're trying. You're you're a young Padawad,
- 18:41and you're doing your best, but you assume that the Jedi will at
- 18:45least be your family and have your back.
- 18:49And so when they are. Anakin was.
- 18:51Anakin did. But he didn't represent the Jedi
- 18:54on a larger scale. And and we knew.
- 18:56We know that. But maybe Ahsoka was kind of
- 18:59putting blinders up to that. When it comes down to it, why
- 19:03was she surprised that the Council was not attached?
- 19:06They were so detached from her that they were willing to accept
- 19:10a possibility of treason, which is absurd.
- 19:14It's. Just insane, yeah.
- 19:17And what we've discussed in the past, that Obi Wan of all
- 19:21people, didn't speak up for her, which wouldn't even have been
- 19:24attachment, it would have just been justice.
- 19:27Facts. He could have presented facts
- 19:29based on his experience fighting with alongside her.
- 19:33Exactly. So yeah, But that's.
- 19:36Brutal. I would like to commend Ahsoka
- 19:39on not letting her attachment to Anakin make her stay in an
- 19:44environment she felt was toxic. Yeah, that was the most mature
- 19:48decision ever. Right, right.
- 19:51To understand you're not being respected or treated right, and
- 19:55even if it's the hardest thing you have to do, you leave that.
- 19:59Yeah. Job, relationship, family, even
- 20:04you remove yourself from whatever toxic environment there
- 20:08is out of self respect for yourself.
- 20:11And Ahsoka did that, so in turn her non attachment was a slap
- 20:17back at their non attachment. So like do 2, how does all this
- 20:23work 'cause it seems like 2 ends of a magnet and they never
- 20:27connect. You know the two opposing, they
- 20:29never come together. Which is why I wonder still if
- 20:34that, like I come back to that argument, is the whole point
- 20:36that that the extremism made it impossible for them to actually
- 20:42function properly as a as an organization.
- 20:45And it's also no wonder after that that Ahsoka though she can
- 20:49get you know, invested in the ghost crew and and still, like
- 20:53Rex is with her, willing to die right to the end.
- 20:56No wonder that girl would have problems allowing anyone to get
- 21:00close to her emotionally. Right.
- 21:04Yes, I would put a wall up. Absolutely.
- 21:07And I guess part of the the lesson in the Ahsoka show,
- 21:12right, is that she can kind of maybe let that wall down a
- 21:17little bit and choose to live and all that and like allow
- 21:20people in. But that would be so difficult
- 21:24after living with that pain for so long, and it would become
- 21:27habitual. You know, it's like a pattern
- 21:29now. How would she ever?
- 21:32Just. Break it down without help, I
- 21:34don't know. Again, therapy.
- 21:37Right. Yeah, it's a thing.
- 21:39It exists. It kind of comes down to not
- 21:47putting one person or relationship above your
- 21:51responsibilities to all, because everything is transient.
- 21:56Which I could see where apathy would come in, it would, it
- 22:02would kind of creep in. Well, I can't control anything,
- 22:05so why bother? I mean there's that's our risk
- 22:08too. Sure.
- 22:11And I even think in the other extreme 'cause they say that
- 22:15this non attachment allows for empathy, right?
- 22:18So this always reminds me of a story from Tales of Beetle the
- 22:26Bard. I don't know if you read those,
- 22:27but it was oh, from Harry Potter.
- 22:30Yeah, I know it. I know it.
- 22:31I haven't read it. Yeah, they're really cute.
- 22:33I would recommend it. If you're a Harry Potter fan,
- 22:35they're very cute. So it's a collection of fairy
- 22:37tales from Harry Potter, and one of them is called the Warlocks
- 22:41Hairy Heart. And I've.
- 22:43Only read this once, but it really stuck with me 'cause I
- 22:46think it's so brilliant and it was this warlock who I think he
- 22:50was heartbroken. So what he did was take out his
- 22:52own heart and lock it in a cage so that it could never be heard
- 22:56again and never be broken again. I I feel that.
- 23:01And so the heart became weird, like it grew hair and became
- 23:06hard, like stone. And then it made it impossible
- 23:11for him to have empathy. So to protect himself by
- 23:16protecting himself, he made himself inhuman.
- 23:18Quote, quote, UN quote, you know.
- 23:20So I feel like the Jedi have this practice of a lack of
- 23:24attachment, and so their hearts grow cold like stone.
- 23:28And when they need empathy, like for Ahsoka, it's not there.
- 23:34And they're not even aware that it's not there anymore because
- 23:38they're so, you know, tied to this idea.
- 23:42That's interesting because that you were describing that and all
- 23:45I could think of was Vader, but he he literally locked his heart
- 23:50away. Yeah.
- 23:52So he would never have to deal with the hurt that he felt after
- 23:55turning and losing Padme and all this failure.
- 23:59Replaced it with anger instead. Yeah, so that's the more
- 24:03extreme. But you're you're absolutely
- 24:05right. You just go cold if you don't
- 24:07keep some connection. They say you have to take the
- 24:12good with the bad, which is what we always say If you want to
- 24:15love, you have to be willing to be hurt.
- 24:19Mm hmm. Because you can't have one
- 24:21without the other. So that means.
- 24:23Yes, light and dark. So if you lock your heart away
- 24:26so it can never be hurt, you will never feel joy either.
- 24:30There's a Springsteen lyric for this.
- 24:33I know there is. Hang on.
- 24:35It's from the song Human Touch. Oh girl, that feeling of safety
- 24:39you prize. Well, it comes at a hard, hard
- 24:42price. You can't shut off the risk and
- 24:45the pain without losing the love that remains.
- 24:50We're all riders on this train, OK?
- 24:53But it's true. It's what you just said.
- 24:57You can't shut out the risk and the pain without losing the love
- 25:00that remains. Yeah, you got to do it.
- 25:03And I think that happens naturally, so that as you shut
- 25:07off your attachment, you do naturally lose empathy, I think.
- 25:14And I think that's the ultimate downfall of the Jedi.
- 25:18Oh yeah, well, the whole point of this episode is to talk about
- 25:21was it too extreme? To.
- 25:23Talk about. But on the flip side, one of my
- 25:25favorite quotes in all of Star Wars is spoken by Yoda.
- 25:29Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.
- 25:33And I've been thinking of this quote a lot lately in my own
- 25:38personal life. How do you train yourself to let
- 25:43go of everything you fear to lose?
- 25:46It's hard. It's it comes with the
- 25:50understanding, like we talked about already, that everything
- 25:53is transient. No one lives forever.
- 25:56Nothing lasts forever. You could look at that as a
- 25:58depressed, you know, in a depressed point of view.
- 26:01Or you could treat it as live in the moment, enjoy what you have
- 26:06while you have it. Count each blessing.
- 26:08There's a Japanese phrase and I I don't know what exactly, so
- 26:12forgive me if I butcher it, but it's something like all leaves
- 26:14must fall and it's like, so you must enjoy the beauty of autumn
- 26:19because every leaf will lose, you know, be lost off the tree
- 26:24and like the cherry blossom is fleeting, so you love it while
- 26:28it's there. It's so beautiful and magical,
- 26:29but it will go away and it's supposed to increase the value
- 26:35of that time because it's limited.
- 26:37If it was unlimited, you would just take it for granted, which
- 26:40people do anyway. I think I agree it's the hardest
- 26:43lesson, honestly. I don't know how, but I know
- 26:48that you should. I just don't know how.
- 26:51Yoda. We need more.
- 26:52We need more Yoda. Yeah.
- 26:56Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.
- 26:58OK, cool. Tell me what to do with that
- 27:00motion. Yeah, I know.
- 27:05I mean, my my parents have all, both of them have lost both of
- 27:08their parents. And my mom has always said that
- 27:11she's still to this day, it it hurts her when she thinks of her
- 27:15father, but she tries to remember that like she was
- 27:18really lucky that he was her father and that they had so many
- 27:21good years together. And I I feel that with like even
- 27:25my uncle that I lost last year. Like every time I think of him I
- 27:28cry. But like, the times we had
- 27:31together, it was all good, every single thing.
- 27:34And so even though I'm sad, at least I have that joy.
- 27:39Yeah, like grief can take on so many different forms.
- 27:43It's really hard, I think, to to not get attached, especially
- 27:47when you love something so much. Like my dog, my God, I.
- 27:51Can't. Yes, I can't not be attached to
- 27:55my dog. Well, no one's asking you to not
- 27:58be attached to your dog. Clarence is to my right snoring
- 28:04right now. Hopefully it's not on the.
- 28:09People love our animals, so. Yeah, they always.
- 28:12They've actually requested ASMR of my cat, but that's what they
- 28:15heard him snore. They said he needed AC PAP.
- 28:18So maybe I'll just not do that, but I want to.
- 28:24I wanted to say to your point about losing someone, even if
- 28:28it's symbolically because I've lost friends.
- 28:31I have. I mean, I have memories of
- 28:34things that have since been tainted, and I my memory, I
- 28:40choose to look at the memories I had at the time when it was
- 28:44great to me. Things happen thereafter out of
- 28:48my control kind of changes the scenery of my memories, but you
- 28:52have to hold on to what you remember about that time.
- 28:56It's really hard and there's a lot of changes going on in like
- 29:02in the in the realm of my friends right now, I feel like
- 29:05there's a collective shift in many of my friends.
- 29:09We're all growing up at the age of 40 and it's it's strange for
- 29:13me and that's why I've been thinking, train yourself to let
- 29:17go of everything you fear to lose.
- 29:19I'm afraid of losing something that's been very consistently
- 29:23the same and that goes back to change.
- 29:27It's the ever transient nature, you got to let it flow, you
- 29:31can't get attached. And so that's kind of why I
- 29:34wanted to talk about it, because I've been, I've been pondering
- 29:37it quite a bit lately. I have too, oddly enough.
- 29:41Which is funny because we haven't even talked about this
- 29:43this, the two. Space Twins.
- 29:45Right. Well, and I I have a little deck
- 29:49that I pull cards out of just to kind of think about for the day.
- 29:52And one of them was the river. And I kept that for myself for
- 29:57the week to just look at it. And it was because you need to
- 29:59flow like a river, and like a river will go over rocks and
- 30:03bend around logs and just keep on going.
- 30:06And it doesn't fight back. It goes where the flow takes it.
- 30:11And yes, you can make impact on your life, you can manifest and
- 30:15make dreams come true and all that.
- 30:17But you also have to learn to allow things.
- 30:22I think the most pain we endure is when we resist what's
- 30:26happening. That is, and that comes from
- 30:28fear. Yes.
- 30:31So if you're afraid, you resist, which makes it harder and more
- 30:36painful. You wanna tighten your grip so
- 30:39you don't lose it 'cause you're afraid, Anakin, But you have to
- 30:43be like the river, you know? I love rivers.
- 30:46Right, you too. I love them for their natural
- 30:50beauty, the life they give, the terrain they chisel.
- 30:55But it's the lesson they teach. Like you said, something I've
- 31:00never been able to do is flow with, you know, go with the flow
- 31:06like a river. You need to be more like Luke.
- 31:09I do. Luke is a river.
- 31:10That is, that is, that's the fucking goal of everything in
- 31:14life is to be more like Luke, even if you do compare them to
- 31:17LaGuardia Airport. If you don't know what we're
- 31:26talking about, it's in an episode.
- 31:29With Leanne's mom. Go.
- 31:30Listen. With my mother, go listen.
- 31:33It's ridiculous. But I think I would aspire to
- 31:38just learn to love, learn to respect, and also be able to
- 31:44accept whatever comes as gracefully as possible.
- 31:50I think Luke exemplifies that. I think Obi Wan does too.
- 31:53I think so too. Yeah, I shit, man.
- 31:55His is, his is. He's got a longer lifetime of
- 32:00accumulated instances where Luke was so young when he had to step
- 32:04up to the plate. You know and.
- 32:05Yeah, and he was. He Luke was kind of like forced
- 32:08into it, and he didn't resist it.
- 32:10Like, he just really let it flow.
- 32:12And it wasn't painless, that's for sure.
- 32:15But Obi Wan, I think, was more in the camp of like, I'm doing
- 32:20everything right. Like I'm following the rules.
- 32:22I'm doing what I'm supposed to do.
- 32:23Oh my God, my life exploded. Why does this shit keep
- 32:27happening to me? Well, I guess I'll just carry
- 32:29on. I mean, that's a good, that's a
- 32:31good way to be. Yeah, and with with.
- 32:33Also a really important lesson, which is probably maybe a little
- 32:37side tangent here, but that like just because you're doing
- 32:40everything right does not mean bad things won't happen.
- 32:44That's right. You just have to accept and deal
- 32:47with it when it does and do it as gracefully.
- 32:51Yeah, as possible. Which one does like the most
- 32:55humane, gracious acceptance of the most deep trauma and pain?
- 33:00Yeah. I would say I know she's, I know
- 33:04she's not a Jedi, but she was with one and that's Hera.
- 33:09If there's anyone who has an and Leia kind of a Jedi.
- 33:15More sensitive. Yeah, right, so I can put her in
- 33:19that camp. I I mean, she she didn't even
- 33:21have to like, OK, wait, I'm bringing up something.
- 33:25She turned away from that life because she feared perhaps her
- 33:30attachment would lead her down the path of her biological
- 33:34father. Very interesting.
- 33:36So she was smart enough to recognize.
- 33:40I don't know there. This is not easy.
- 33:42Again, we come with questions and leave with more questions,
- 33:49but I find it interesting. I will, I will encourage all
- 33:53comments from whoever is listening to this on your take
- 33:56because I think this is one of these topics we could go over
- 33:59and over and over and think of more instances and more examples
- 34:03and still keep going over it and never quite come to a
- 34:05conclusion. Yeah.
- 34:07And maybe, you know, maybe there is no right or wrong answer per
- 34:11SE, but I want to ask you this, did you get the sense that Obi
- 34:15Wan was attached to Qui Gun? Yes, but he was younger when he
- 34:22was attached to him and you know the moment where they're in the
- 34:27room, they're they're in the council room and and qui gun
- 34:30just like, well, I'll take the boy as the pad one and he's
- 34:33like, the fuck. Yeah.
- 34:35That was his attachment, kind of rearing its head in like the the
- 34:40calmest way Anakin would have had a fucking outburst.
- 34:46Well, he did when Mace was like, Nope, you know, and then he
- 34:50killed a bunch of Padawans, so. It's unfair, yeah.
- 34:56So like Obi Wan had a had a like a excuse me you know, and I I
- 35:01think he was attached, but I think he reigned it in.
- 35:04Yeah, I bet he probably didn't even know he was attached.
- 35:08Just like Anakin. Well, I think that's why.
- 35:11Like when he's he's younger at that moment and that's why I
- 35:14wanted to like say that he had time to think back on it and
- 35:18ponder it and be like, OK, I probably shouldn't have acted
- 35:21like that. Qui Gon obviously didn't mean it
- 35:24this way or that way or whatever.
- 35:26He he thought about it a little bit more than, say, his padawan.
- 35:31Yes, that sounds right. You know, what do you think?
- 35:37I think you're right. Honestly, I I kind of feel like
- 35:40I'm not sure. But after what you just said, I
- 35:43don't think you would have had that visible reaction if you
- 35:46didn't feel betrayed somehow. And you wouldn't feel betrayed
- 35:49if you didn't have an an attachment, or at least a desire
- 35:53to prove yourself to that. Person Well, you've written Qui
- 35:57Gon and Obi Wan. Have you ever thought about this
- 36:00as you you wrote about them together?
- 36:02Yeah, and the thick I'm gonna release soon.
- 36:07Ish is about what happens. So if it went after Qui, Gon
- 36:11dies and I yes, like, I play with the idea of attachment and
- 36:17grief and how like you need to grieve.
- 36:21But if you're not allowed to be attached, that grief isn't
- 36:24allowed to be expressed properly, and it can, like, mess
- 36:27you up. Yeah, grief is a different.
- 36:29Maybe we should talk about grief at some point, because it's kind
- 36:32of like it's like a side tangent.
- 36:34It's like the sister or the cousin, the third cousin twice
- 36:38removed from attachment. Yeah, I think grieving is a
- 36:44another human, totally normal, sometimes, usually healthy
- 36:50response. I think Open One's so
- 36:52interesting with this topic in particular because he's such a
- 36:56good Jedi and he did practice some really overt non
- 37:01attachment, which is why I think like his love for Anakin was
- 37:07yes, so devastating. And his words to Anakin when he
- 37:11said he loved him, that's attachment.
- 37:13But he was still able to walk away.
- 37:17Right. But like.
- 37:19Oh my gosh. But.
- 37:20Let's take, let's take into consideration the Kenobi show,
- 37:24where he truly does walk away from Vader like that.
- 37:28Was him leaving that where it lied like that?
- 37:33Was it? It was such a good moment.
- 37:37Talk about taking your power back and leaving the other
- 37:40person just like seething in their race.
- 37:46Bang up job done by both actors to to truly convey the sadness
- 37:51of it all. But.
- 37:53You see the change in Obi Wan how?
- 37:56How very attached and disappointed and heartbroken and
- 37:59betrayed he was by what Anakin had become.
- 38:04And then just how detached he became.
- 38:07I mean, he was crying. He was feeling through shit.
- 38:10He'd held on for four fucking years.
- 38:15But he finally, like, let that go.
- 38:16He grieved long enough. I'm sure the the grief led him
- 38:20to walking away from it and being OK with it at that point.
- 38:24It's basically what Bale says to him when he comes to everyone's
- 38:28cave, which I love, that he was able to find out where his cave
- 38:31was and he said Anakin is gone, like it's time for you to move
- 38:36on. You did what you could, there's
- 38:39nothing more you can do, so why don't you just move on?
- 38:42It's time. You know, well at that point
- 38:46he's he's berating himself. He's thinking what could I have
- 38:49done? What was, why was it my fault?
- 38:51All the things that I'm sure Ahsoka also thought like had I
- 38:55only done this, Had I only said that?
- 38:57Had I only been there, You know, things it the growth comes after
- 39:01you grieve and let go of that. So those two characters got to
- 39:05do that and then Anakin later as Vader finally did it with Luke,
- 39:10you know, so they all get their redemption arc.
- 39:13Well, not that Ahsoka and everyone needed redeemed, but
- 39:17they kind of from themselves, from their own guilt.
- 39:20Yeah, to themselves. I think they needed it, yeah.
- 39:23Even though we can absolve them because we see the full picture
- 39:26with outside eyes. When it's you, you just punish
- 39:30yourself, I think. I think we all do that, yeah.
- 39:35This is such an interesting stuff.
- 39:36It's so. Interesting.
- 39:39I love kind of digging into this stuff.
- 39:41And I know that attachment, the psychological side of it, is so,
- 39:46I mean, starts as a child and then just continues.
- 39:48But the Jedis thought of it, you know, accepting that there's no
- 39:53control in the universe and you can't, you can't just latch onto
- 39:57one thing and one person and one ideal, you know, look at where
- 40:01it took so many good. I mean Dooku.
- 40:06Yeah. You know, it's just.
- 40:09It's the path to the dark side. Train yourself to let go of it.
- 40:16What else does he say? I don't know.
- 40:18Come on, Yoda. Give me.
- 40:19Give me all you got. Oh, here we go.
- 40:24Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed.
- 40:26That is. Train yourself to let go of
- 40:28everything you fear to lose greed and jealousy.
- 40:31Attachment leads to jealousy. Hey, Clovis.
- 40:37Hey, Damn Greed. Yeah, these are these are our
- 40:45the oh the vices, the the Vice episodes.
- 40:49Seven. What is it?
- 40:507 deadly sins or something like that, Yeah.
- 40:53Yeah. Oh, if you guys haven't listened
- 40:55to that episode, go check it out because.
- 40:57I loved those episodes, the vices and the virtues.
- 41:00Mm hmm. That was fun.
- 41:02Damn. And it all comes back to that.
- 41:06I mean, I'm attached to you, so I'm OK with that.
- 41:09I'm attached to you too. Yay.
- 41:11I'm codependent with my dog, which is probably unhealthy.
- 41:15And she's OK with that as well. She is OK with it.
- 41:18She's codependent as well. We'll talk about Codependency in
- 41:22another episode next week. No, I'm just kidding.
- 41:33So we kind of already asked you let us know your thoughts on
- 41:36attachment. What do you think?
- 41:38Do you agree that attachment's a bad thing?
- 41:40Were the Jedi right? Were they too extreme?
- 41:43Was it all? Did it all kind of play out the
- 41:46way it was supposed to? This is a deep topic.
- 41:49We can talk about it for weeks at a time, so sound off in the
- 41:53comments. Hit us up on social media,
- 41:56respond via Spotify, and just let us know we'd love to hear
- 42:01your theories. Next week we are going to change
- 42:05gears a little bit. We are going to talk about Leia
- 42:09the Hutz Slayer. Yeah.
- 42:11Really excited. Me too.
- 42:15She is the Hut. Slayer, she damn it.
- 42:17And I saw a post where someone said that it's not talked about
- 42:21enough and it's not ever talked about that she killed Jabba the
- 42:25Hutt, who was her father's slaver.
- 42:28So we're going to dive into that, give some Leah some love,
- 42:32because she's a fucking bad ass. It's going to be awesome.
- 42:34I can't wait. Join us back.
- 42:36Me neither. Thank you so much for joining us
- 42:39here on The Most Things Kenobi Podcast.
- 42:42We appreciate every single one of our patrons and are grateful
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- 43:07So until next time, Myspace Twin, may the Force be with you.
- 43:12Always.