Luke has a feeling that Alec is expressing what should be a relatively healthy sentiment -- that he can't change the things out of his control and so shouldn't worry about them -- in an unhealthy manner, because he doubts it's that simple. Learning to let go, learning to accept that some things simply can't be changed, that comes with a lifetime of work and while Luke has grown closer to Alec in recent weeks and thinks he has a high number of very good attributes, he feels as if letting go might not be one of them.

At the change of subject, he glances around the living room and then shakes his head. "No," he says. "Not at all. Jocelyn was an aggressively private woman in her attempts to keep Clary from learning about the Shadow World. She didn't make very many friends in New York and she wasn't particularly keen on having Downworlders around her daughter. Given that most of my friends were werewolves, holidays were always relatively quiet."

Then his mouth twitches into a smile and he adds, "Except at Hunter's Moon. I would sometimes slip away from Jocelyn and Clary early just to spend time there. Their parties were always big and loud and... warm. They were happy."