Goethe explained, “The operative question is what do you need to let go?”

I gave him the silent treatment, but it was pointless.

As my rehabilitation officer, he had complete access to my thoughts, whether I wanted him to or not. In a flash of light, we appeared in the one place I never wanted to be again. The dorm room where I lost, or Goethe might say found, my sanity.

My consciousness a flood of electric current, paralysis set in, forcing me to behold the blood-stained canvas that tore apart my soul.

“You must release this. You simply cannot take it with you.” Goethe asked, “What is it about this room that haunts your existence?”

“She haunts my soul every day.”

“Open your eyes to reality. She haunts you no more than a mosquito haunts a gorilla. It is, in fact, you who is haunting her. The longer you cling to the pain, the longer she suffers at your hands. The pain will subside when you release her. You see, she is the pain, a haunting reminder of what you did moments before your death.”