Moments the Series
- Moments Zero (click here)
- Moments One (click here)
- Moments Two (this post)
Image Source: hybridpedagogy.org
Huge chunks of ice had appeared here and there on the Hudson River, slowly fused together. Most parts of the river had already frozen solid and no sign of the freezing weather to abate any time soon. Hundreds of ships were trapped, and a lot of services were completely shut down including the infamous East River ferry service on the nearby. This was a bit of a problem because people were still relying on vessels to transport supplies to Northeast communities as much as they were sixty years ago.
This was probably the worst winter in New York for a century. The last time the Hudson River had frozen over like that was in the 1800s which was almost 300 years ago. New Yorkers could be forgiven for wondering whether they were able to drive a car from Manhattan to New Jersey through the encrusted stream, which in fact, was quite possible. But impossible at the same time, unless they were OK with the threat of hazardous wind chills.
The US Coast Guard had deployed fifty-five boats of varying sizes to cut a pathway through a stretch of seemingly impenetrable ice in order to keep the water traffic moving. It was good news of sorts, especially for a trapped ship nearby Ethan’s whereabouts in Yonkers. But it had to wait for at least forty minutes before the help arrived. Apparently, all these events and situation outside were completely unknown to Dr Patricia and Ethan.
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It had been 25 minutes since Dr Patricia joined the silence. It amounted to more than 1000 minutes of silence, actually, if you were to count all the six months worth of sessions.
Six months. For that amount of time, she had been patiently waiting for Ethan to speak up, but her client barely spoke a word.
They say, don’t make someone else’s problem your own; Absorbing someone else’s guilt and sorrow is mentally demanding and frustrating. As famously put: misery loves company. But what if you were Dr Patricia? She absorbed people’s problem for a living. She surely was a strong human being.
However, that time, Dr Patricia decided that she had had enough and spoke her mind.
“It took courage to begin therapy, Ethan. It can be a big step to open up. It really is. So, umm, Thank you for reaching out.” Dr Patricia said, a little hesitated.
“But uh. You know. Typically, people think of therapy as a conversation between two people working together to understand what’s going on and why.” she pointed out slowly, then paused for a while.
“It is not just ‘talking about your problems’; it is also working toward solutions. But I can’t help you if you don’t let me.” Dr Patricia proceeded. “So could you…“.
“I’m looking out at the mountains,” Ethan interrupted. Talked about what he saw in the LED window. “They’ve never looked more beautiful.”
Dr Patricia perplexed, couldn’t believe what just happened.