[New blog entry: three poems in honor of Les Greenberg, on his 80th birthday, using science fiction and fantasy themes to imagine a set of myths about the origins of EFT but told to children (like my or Les' grandkids). The slightly crazy, unruly writing style was inspired by the children's books of beloved Canadian children's book author Robert Munsch. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did writing them!]
Preface
We met when we were barely out of childhood
Heads and hearts full of hopes and dreams
To change the world of psychotherapy
And psychotherapy research,
Which we did
Now that we are old,
We might as well make some myths.
For some reason,
These have come out as children’s stories.
Myth Number 1: Don’t Kill the Dragon
You didn’t kill the dragon.
Afterall, the dragon
Is sacred to the Goddess.
Instead, you listened to her story.
(She was a very old dragon,
Even older than we are
And had a lot of story to tell.)
Surprised and pleased
By your empathy and compassion,
The dragon didn’t eat you.
Instead, she opened the place in her chest
Where you didn’t stab her
With your non-existent sword,
And invited you to taste
The thick, rich blood that oozed out.
Yes, I know, that’s kind of gross!
But really it was a great honour,
And after all, it was her core pain.
And you were brave and curious enough to try.
And then, just like that other hero
In that great big singing story by that German guy,
Suddenly you could understand
Not just what the birds were saying,
But also all the animals.
And you could talk to them too,
Because you had used your emotion empathy
Science magic to learn
The beating heart language
Of the birds and animals,
Which is after all the language of emotion.
But my favourite part of this story is this:
Then you wrote a bunch of books
And taught a bunch of classes
Where you worked with the rest us
To find and forge the emotion empathy
Science magic, which is very cool!
Myth Number 2: The Temptation
At some point, the science wizard power bad guys
Began to get worried.
So they took you
And your science witch teacher Laura
Up to the top of a tall tower.
They showed you the power cities of the world,
And told you,
“We’ll let you be the boss of all this,
If you just come over
To the dark side of the Process
(that’s the magic of one-thing-after-another),
If you just say you believe in our kind of
Science wizard power magic,
Named CBT.”
Needless to say,
You were too stubborn to give in.
And for this we are all very grateful,
Because here we are today,
Paper bag princesses all,
(Just like in the book by Robert Munsch)
Doing three things: First, instead of eating CBT hamburgersWe live on honey and manna,
Which is kind of like baklava
But is really dried bug juice sap:
It really isn’t as bad as it sounds;
Plus it’s good for us
And is environmentally friendly.
Second, we are rejecting patriarchy!
(Which means power guys running everything
And telling women and children
And other folks what to do).
We don’t like this! Yay us!
Third, best of all,
We are talking with the beast and the bird
Parts of each other
Using emotion empathy science magic,
…And maybe a little help from
The Merlin apps on our phones?
Myth Number 3: Gallifrey
This myth might be more for grown-ups;
It is full of Dr. Who references.
Les, we know you couldn’t stay in South Africa,
Any more than the Doctor could stay in Gallifrey.
Canada was and is your promised land.
You might, or might not, be a Time Lord,
But there is the matter of
Your two hearts:
One heart beats even now for Brenda,
Lost for many years, but still alive in you.
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TARDIS BBC Television Centre; source: Babbel1996 |
Fortunately, like the TARDIS,
Your heart is bigger on the inside,
And there is plenty of room here
In its chambers:
Over your 80 years,
You have taken us all,
Your travelling companions,
On too many adventures to name.
With you we have found and forged
The emotion empathy science magic
Needed to cross time and space
Regenerating through
Nebulas of vague feelings
And supernova secondary
Chain reaction emotions
To cosmic background stuckness
And the blackest holes of despair.
There, fragile, broken, seemingly
Alone in the universe,
At the last moment we suddenly
Emerge through the wormhole,
Discover we are not alone,
And reach our hearts’ desire.
-Robert Elliott, September 2025