Answers to DesertKnight questions...
1) Real lessons come from life, not from anime/comics/etc...but without doubt Cowboy Bebop has many foods for thought...
Main theme is forgiveness (for the most part of the Anime, it seems that all the characters lead a life on "hold" waiting for something ...), and how the past comes back to haunt all those who have not managed to close with it, so a lesson can be seen as the advice to always look ahead. In fact, at the end of the Anime, all the characters who have managed to make a clean break with their past life will remain on the Bebop (Jet and Faye), while those who turned around to face his own ghosts (Spike) or chose his old life (Ed) get off from Bebop forever...
2-3)
Elements is a game and, as such, should not be put in front of other priorities such as school, friends, family, etc...
This fact should be clear to all.
But once you've made a commitment (in particular, to join our team), I wish that this commitment is completely respected.
It's a form of self-respect, first of all, and to all other teammates.
So, if I was the master of time, I would try to immediately surrounded by people whom I could rely blindly; and if a player was undecided to join our team, there would be no conversation nor any attempt to convince this player; as I wrote earlier, you need passion in everything you do. If a player is not 100% convinced to join our team then he's not the right person for our team...