The
Last of the Three Wise
Men of
Gotham
Mother Goose, a name we
all know and love, tells us once again about
the Three Wise Men of Gotham.
Oh what a delight those
Three Wise Men of Gotham were together. We had
been close friends for centuries when tragedy struck and two of our
beloved Wise Men lost their lives in an accident out at sea. I composed
this shortly after it happened:
Three
wise men of Gotham
Went to sea in a bowl.
If the bowl had been stronger
My tale would have been longer.
The Three Wise Men were
named Marc, Luke, and Jon, and they were all
from Gotham village in Nottinghamshire, England. They were called wise
men as more of a sarcastic jab at their simple way of thinking about
life. Let me tell you why they went out to sea. One morning when Luke
had a craving for an authentic French breakfast, complete with
chocolate crepes, the Wise Men set out for France in a great, big bowl.
They had taken their time in selecting the right bowl to take on the
journey-- a sturdy one, with high enough sides and a wide enough center
area to stand-- but they had chosen a fragile, ceramic bowl instead of
a durable plastic one, like good old Tupperware. As they made their way
out to sea, the winds began to pick up and the sky turned dark and
hazy. With one rogue wave the bowl was sent crashing into a beach of
boulders, shattering the bowl into hundreds of little pieces. Marc and
Jon disappeared into the deep, cold blue, and Luke's body was found
washed up on a local beach quickly after. Since the accident, Luke has
been plagued by feelings of intense guilt because it was his idea to go
get crepes in the first place. For the last hundred years he has been
working with a therapist who specializes not only in grief therapy, but
has also worked with fairy tale characters, as he is a nursery rhyme
character himself, Dr. Foster. I recently wrote to Luke's therapist
asking how his sessions were coming along. This is what I received back:
Dearest
Mother Goose,
It's
always a pleasure to hear from
you. I have been in this business for many centuries and I have never
seen someone suffer such grief from the loss of a loved one, or in his
case two loved ones. While most people are able to cope with loss in a
healthy, normal way, a character like Luke will not be able to simply
adjust after such a traumatic event. Luckily he has me as his
therapist. Our goal in therapy is to allow the loss to transform him.
Since he was created as part of this group of Three Wise Men of Gotham,
he only knows himself as a part of that group, and not as an
individual. With the other two members of his pack gone, Luke struggles
with his identity. Now he must learn to create a new normal state of
being, with an adjusted relationship with his fellow Wise Men removed
physically, but not gone emotionally. Someone in Luke's situation can
end up spending the rest of their life trying to get over a great
personal loss. Time can pass, but what matters is how you spend that
time. You have to be active in your pursuit of healing and balance in
life. These are highly unique circumstances working with an imaginary
character like Luke, because we have yet to explore the cognitive
processes of a cartoon. Perhaps it is because of this difference that
Luke has experienced such a prolonged period of grief. While a hundred
years may seem like a lifetime to be working with someone in therapy,
tee-hee-ha-ha, I have only begun to scratch the surface of what appears
to be a new form of the psyche. Luke and I may be on the verge of
introducing a whole new area of study in psychology.
Best
regards,
Dr.
Foster
Author's note: This
story was inspired by Mother Goose's nursery rhyme,
Three Wise Men of Gotham. I say inspired because the nursery rhyme is
quite short so it leaves a lot up to the imagination. I liked the idea
of still including Mother Goose in telling these new stories. I decided
to include the original nursery rhyme to remind people of who the Three
Wise Men of Gotham were. I also thought it would be kind of nostalgic
for those who grew up with Mother Goose and her nursery rhymes. In the
original rhyme the Wise Men didn't have names, but in order to be able
to distinguish between them in my story I decided to name them Luke,
Marc, and Jon. Their names aren't from Mother Goose, but Dr. Foster is
another Mother Goose nursery rhyme character. I also chose to have the
doctor introduced through a letter, instead of just a face-to-face
conversation. I have Mother Goose tell what happened after the rhyme
ended, with the crash of the bowl. Luke is the sole survivor and he is
having trouble moving past the loss of his fellow Wise Men. Dr. Foster
is his therapist who is eagerly exploring his "prize" patient's mind.
For me Dr. Foster reminded me of a mad-genius doctor who couldn't wait
to get inside the head of a fellow nursery rhyme character.
Unfortunately, as one of the Wise Men, Luke is really a fool, so he
isn't exactly a prize patient like Dr. Foster thinks.
