Aqua - Open to all who are ill

[aquawayfinder]

Who: Aqua and anyone else in quarentine
What: Might as well run some classes
Where: Medical area
When: All month until they're cured/freed
Warnings: possibly some people cursing at her...
Rating: Should be G unless someone brings it darker.


Aqua had realized, after working with Viti, that perhaps the other students here could use her aid. She had been making her notes about about her experiences to help with a cure, but... but maybe the students needed her more directly. So she spread the word amongst the ill and then sat and waited for them to come, if any were bored enough and wished to attend classes in Mastery and Philosophy, she was happy to teach and talk....

Comments

[friendofdorothy]

Philosophy actually seems to make Liir enthusiastic. Or at least less dolorous, anyway.

"I'm sorry, I missed the last class." Because he'd fainted and gotten sick. "Where were we?"

[aquawayfinder]

Aqua gave him a warm smile as she sat. "I was thinking that we could discuss Master Confucius today. Unless you had some other request." When she had been told they needed to quarantine her, she had been able to pack rapidly, and so she had a number of her books. she fished out two copies of the Analects.

[friendofdorothy]

Liir hefted his copy.

"As within, so without...Confucius believed that it was the morality of the leader that determined his rightness. So his subordinates were expected to act as extensions of him, and the righteousness of the leader would spread out from him." His voice and the subsuquent chuckle were weak. "Somewhat naive if you think about it."

He had read a lot of books. Possibly too many.

Oh, this is going to be fun! YAY!!!!!

[aquawayfinder]

"The belief in leading through benevolent example," she said with a nod, putting away the spare copy.

"Raise the straight and set them over the crooked and the common people will look up to you. Raise the crooked and set them over the straight, and the common people will not look up to you," she quoted without opening her tome. "Book two, Analect 19."

"Perhaps it is not so much naivete as the context of the situation. And perhaps his meaning went deeper than simply leading a band of people secularly. There are more ways to lead, even if the one making the request is a Duke. How else do you think he might have meant this?"

[friendofdorothy]

"I don't know. Spiritually? A kind of divine vanguardism? Gives a new meaning to the term 'moral authority', I guess...But otherwise that was probably it for my insight on the text. It's probably downhill from here."

Though he was told he was smart since coming here, he didn't have a very high opinion of his own intelligence. He wished Aqua were the kind of teacher who would just feed him knowledge he could regurgitate. He'd found himself good at that in the army.

[aquawayfinder]

"Mayhaps he meant as a teacher," she said with a small nod, "as on in a position where others look to him with their minds ready to accept what he does as an example of how to be. And for all we know, that was what was expected of a secular leader in that time."

She shrugged, and managed not to wince at the pain from that. Mastery, after all.

"Thinking in that context, where the people would be looking to the Duke to teach them the way they should behave, do you still find the advice to be naive?"

[friendofdorothy]

"I don't know any Dukes...But I've met two very righteous leaders in my lifetime. Maybe...I can understand a bit of what he's trying to get at."

His own mother and Renko, he meant. Both righteous and seemingly empty of the personal. Good if you were looking for someone to follow, but bad if you cared for them personally.

[aquawayfinder]

"One of the great things about this text, is that there are as many ways to interpret it as there are stars in the skies. For an example, pick your favorite Analect, and we can discuss it."

She gave a warm smile. She hated sitting still while teaching, while doing anything, really, but she was Master enough to yield to the practical in this case. Moving rapidly fatigued her to the point where she of no use to anyone.

Illness was good training, she supposed, from a theoretical standpoint. In practicality, she hated it.

[friendofdorothy]

Liir hadn't been at this text much since he'd been assigned it. He'd only skimmed it, in fact. But there was one passage that had stuck out to him, which he'd dog-eared. He flipped pages with his thumb until he came to it.

"The superior man does what is proper to the station in which he is; he does not desire to go beyond this. In a position of wealth and honor, he does what is proper to a position of wealth and honor. In a poor and low position, he does what is proper to a poor and low position. Situated among barbarous tribes, he does what is proper to a situation among barbarous tribes. In a position of sorrow and difficulty, he does what is proper to a position of sorrow and difficulty. The superior man can find himself in no situation in which he is not himself...Tell me, what is proper for the situation of mutants?" He actually smirked there. "We're not supposed to exist in the first place. The most 'barbarous tribe' is closer to Master Kong than we are."

[aquawayfinder]

"Who says that we are not supposed to exist whose words matter as much as the Master's?" she asked, arching her blue brows. "All those who exist, exist. There are arguments outside of the secular as to supposed to and not supposed to, and we can explore the theological aspects of philosophy as well, if you wish it."

"However, of we remove the religious rhetoric for the moment, then let us focus on proper positions. While we can recall that the culture that the Master speaks of is a far more structured and rigid one that we inhabit now, much of what he says could still apply."

"In this case, it seems to me that the superior man does not desire to go beyond his station, because his station is that of the superior man. Look at the end of that, the superior man can find himself in no situation in which he is not himself which allows for a fluidity of station that was implied by the previous to be undesirable. It is not that the secondary station cannot change, it is that he does not seek to change it. To that end, the Analect seems onto me as though it is saying that in any situation, be it one of difficulty or ease, the focus should not be on changing the situation. The concern should be on the quality of your self, and if the self is good and secure and superior, then the rest matters little."

"Th=aking that to the division this outer world seems to have between mutants, those who are not mutants but support them, those who are not mutants who hate them, and those who are not mutants but feel ambivalent, not including the individual factions within each group..."

"As you find yourself in a position within that structure as a mutant, the advice and wisdom of the Master seems to be not to try and change your status as a mutant nor to be overly concerned with how others see you because you are a mutant, but to be the best person you can be. From there, the rest matters less, according to the Master."

"After all, does he not say in Book 1, Analect 16, it is not the failure of others to appreciate your abilities that should trouble you, but rather, your failure to appreciate theirs. To me, this sounds like it speaks directly to your question. It is not a matter of do others believe there is a proper situation for us, or do others believe that we should exist, but do we see in our selves a situation of striving to be our best, and do we see in others the best within them, even if they fail to see it within us?"

"The mission is not to convince others that you are a benevolent person, the mission is to be a benevolent person, and to see moments of benevolence in all people around you."