Tolkien

I have these odd little thoughts or memories that go through my head sometimes during a session. Today it was that line from the Lord of the Rings (LOTR for those who really get into that kind of thing): "One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them. One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."

This quote was going through my head today as I had a young man explain to me that he'd rather go live with a father who was horrendously abusive to him and his siblings for years -- than to stay in the foster-care system any longer.

These emotional ties to family. So powerful. Which is wonderful in the vast majority of cases...but for this young man? To say I worry about the effect of such a move would be an understatement of extreme proportions.

He knows what's happened to him. He remembers. Yet he is drawn back, prefering the comfort of "family" to living with strangers. Even when that connection with family could have such destructive influence on his life. I wonder how much of this is conscious. Or how much of this is unconscious, eerily like what Tolkien wrote "...and in the darkness, bind them."

I pray my words of caution to this young man seeped in, meant something to him.