That song from Frozen is caterwauled by my daughter nearly every day in this house.  Actually, not trained to clearly enunciate her words, it usually sounds like the brother-friendly version – ‘Le-go!’.

Letting go of the past, or things that have become too cumbersome, can be a good thing.  For example, I’ve spent days going over and over my current writing, not willing to say it’s finished, because that means I’ll have to move on to something new. Sometimes, when necessary change beckons, I feel like an action film character, caught outside a speeding ‘but it’s what I know’ plane, holding on for dear life, fighting against being blown away into the unknown.

The familiar is easier.  But also, badly stagnant at times.

Yesterday, I had a conversation about how the same issues of bigotry, racism and discrimination existed today, that have been around for aeons.  Last week, a little girl in my daughter’s class announced she hated black people (in front of a girl with a black father).  I asked my aunt if this year might be the time when they finally made a woman minister Moderator of the Presbyterian church.  After receiving a couple of nominations in the past herself, but never enough to be put through, she’s still dubious that people have moved on that much.

There is something deeper, blacker, more stubbornly insidious in all of us.  Something that no amount of courses and rousing speeches can fix.  I don’t know how to, either.  All I know how to do is to spot the people different to me, and become their friend.

The words to ‘Let it go’ are pretty selfish, if truth be told, as the singer discards all commitments to exclusively ‘be herself’.  However, those three words can be used for good purposes: letting go of damaging thoughts and behaviours, or stopping re-reading, and just getting the confounded thing published.