The four doors

"The four doors of the mind for coping with pain: The first door is sleep. Sleep offers us a retreat from the world and all of its pain. Sleep marks the passing time, giving us the distance from the things that have hurt us. When a person is wounded they will often fall unconscious. Similarly, someone who hears traumatic news will often swoon or faint. This is the minds way of protecting itself from pain by stepping through the first door. The second door is forgetting. Some wounds are too deep to heal, or too deep to heal quickly. In addition, many memories are simply too painful, and there is no healing to be done. The saying 'time heals all wounds' is false. Time heals most wounds. The rest are hidden behind this door. The third door is madness. There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. While this may not seem beneficial, it is. There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind. Last is the door of death. The final resort. Nothing can hurt us after we're dead, or so we've been told."

                    ~Patrick Rothfuss~