“Are you clinging on to things even though they have become irrelevant, because you fear losing the familiar?”
The boy pondered at the question for a moment.
“I don’t know.” He replied.
“Why not?”
“Am I hanging on to anything?”
“Are you?”
“Hmmmm…”
He stared out of the window into the still night.
“What’s the alternative?” He asked, “I am making changes, you know.”
“I didn’t say that you weren’t. I merely asked if you are still hanging on to the irrelevant.”
“But what’s irrelevant? As long as they matter, they are still relevant, no?”
“But are they still relevant to you?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, then so be it. As long as you know.”
“Okay.”
“Do the new displace the old? Do we need to let go of old things if we are to embrace the new?”
“They can co-exist.”
“Can they?”
“Sometimes, yes. But that’s not the issue. The issue is one of relevance. Whether they are still relevant to you.”
“I do not fear the unknown. Nor the unfamiliar.”
“I know you don’t. You can be quite adventurous.”
“Okay.”
“Why do they still matter?”
Pause.
The boy thought about that question a little.
“They just do.”
“So if they don’t you will have no problem letting go?”
Pause.
If nothing else, the boy was honest.
“I’m not sure. I won’t know. It’s too hypothetical.”
“Hypothesize.”
He knew that he was stuck.
“Okay. I’m afraid to let go. Because I don’t know what happens after that. I don’t know what will happen if I do.”
“Fair enough.”
“So what do I do?”
“I don’t have answers for you. I am not here to give you solutions.”
“Oh.”
Pause.
“So why did you ask me if had problems letting go?”
Silence.
He knew the session was over.
He stared out of the window into the starless night and fell into a dreamless sleep.
