TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘…of morning showers and early sunsets’ | the Wakefield Doctrine TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘…of morning showers and early sunsets’ | the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘…of morning showers and early sunsets’

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

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Others describe this bloghop much more eloquently, emphasizing the value of (a) sharing of gratitude, re-enforcing, (or reinforcing, I suspect, in some circles, both could apply), the strength imparted from a long tradition in demonstrating self-examination and the resultant life-enhancing development of skills allowing truer expression and, therefore, increased appreciation of the positive side of life.

This being the Wakefield Doctrine, I thought, ‘well, they have the normal good stuff covered, how about the other elements that are inherent in a practice such as this,  what about them?!’  So, I am totally grateful for:

1) The fact that this community is made up of people who enjoy the non-…… normal, rather than threaten by it. The TToT invites all of us to share the things for which we are grateful. It’s sorta of expected that there be Ten Things…. if, for no other reason than, the ‘Some-Number-Depending-On-Your-Week Things of Thankful’ url was already taken.

2) The fact that concepts like hypo-gratitude, an example of which I’ll cite in #3, is considered a valid Grat List item. (To the un-initiate, the idea that a bloghop that is focused on cultivating gratitude, would allow items reflecting things that we really kinda hate, might seem a bit…. off-putting.) I will maintain that it is the very opposite.  In the real world things are not always good. And, while many here at the TToT do a remarkable job of taking a bad thing (incident, event, whatever) and find the perspective that converts the negative into the positive, or at very least, into the not so negative, is a true expression of the underlying principles of a gratitude exercise. Well, hypo-gratitude items are like that… if you go to the trouble of expressing it in a way that the others can understand and identify with, then you have surely left behind the toxic negativity that is usually a part of the negatives that we encounter in our day-to-day lives.

3) Hypo-gratitude item:  Since June, when I take a shower*, I set the faucet (one of those single dial things) at about ‘5:00 o’clock’.  Comfortable. Yesterday…. morning shower and ‘5:00 o’clock’ was…. cold! Surely one of the most fundamental ways to be reminded of the inevitable change of the seasons. (I won’t even mention how ‘not-still-light’ at a reasonable time in the evening things are these days.)

4)  The people, (all virtual), who ‘enjoy’ the Gravity Challenge. Kristi and Christine and Lisa and Val and Joy . All, ( I assume), enjoy the process of the Challenge for different reasons. I, for one, find that the coolest thing about it is that, on one level, we all can identify with each other. (Sure, it’s a very, very small, quite focused and specialized aspect of a person’s life, but the magic of ‘identification’ is that I can say to a another person, ‘I know how you feel’.

5) The Six Sentence Story with headmistrae zoe. (Despite the fact that, in High School, I was this close to being named the,  ‘Most Likely to be Mistaken for an English Teacher at virtually any Stage of Life’,   I saw no value in learning to write. ( Hey! Come on! I was 17 years old, it was 1969 and loud music had just been invented! What use did I have for gerunds and participles? If it didn’t cure acne or promise to make me less of an awkward semi-geek, I did not have time for it.) Of course, today I’m scrambling to make up for the lack of skills with the written word and such. In fairness to me, most bloggers seem to be women (who are former girls) and god knows you people never had the desperate, near-psychotic levels of drive to be acceptable by the opposite sex that was de rigueur for those of us who grew up in Y Chromia. ( I suppose, to be fair, I should qualify that last statement. The ‘desperation’ of those days of adolescent agony didn’t really apply to my (caveman) scottian classmates, or, and ‘stepford husbands’ that were the rogers in high school.)  Where was I?  zoe and the 6 Sentence Stories! What a great learning opportunity! I write and I read what the others do (with the same prompt) and I learn. And I get better. Thanks z (and Josie)

6) We can’t have a TToT without expressing gratitude for one of the single coolest features of this here bloghop here, the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules). It is license to be creative, it is (an) invitation to flaunt the Rules, (such as they are), and it adds another dimension to writing Gratitude Posts. very cool

7) Dyanne…. she wrote a fun Six Sentence Story this week. (The fun was, itself, a manifestation of what it is that’s so incredible about the blogosphere. For those with sufficiently developed powers of Imagination (and his sexier sister, Visualization), it’s like writing and producing your own TV shows. Way better than what’s on the ‘real’ TV)  btw…. I have never had dark hair, even back in the day…  you’d be better off  to think more, what’s his name,   Fabio… yeah,  light color hair… (  about as long, ‘cept less straight and more… bozo fro…)

8) Phyllis and Una

9) Well, ‘where is the day-to-day, real life happenings that most people write about being grateful for?’ might be a valid question. I need to get back to you on that, ok?  (Update!  real world/real time content!! (oh boy lets see what exotic and interesting things happen in our day-to-day-world!)  7:01 am Saturday:

"why no, officer, I do not have a permit to run a petting zone! Haven't you ever seen a Lithuanian Short-haired Shepherd before?

“why no, officer, I do not have a permit to run a petting zone! Haven’t you ever seen a Lithuanian Short-haired Shepherd before?

(psst!! Mrs Bambi, yo get the frickin kids outta here! alright, the fawn. just lay low, it's gonna be hunting season soon.)

(psst!! Mrs Bambi, yo get the frickin kids outta here! alright, the fawn. just lay low, it’s gonna be hunting season soon.)

10) 1.3

 

* no, I took showers before June!! It’s just the point is about Summer, you know?!

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clarkscottroger About clarkscottroger
Well, what exactly do you want to know? Whether I am a clark or a scott or roger? If you have to ask, then you need to keep reading the Posts for two reasons: a)to get a clear enough understanding to be able to make the determination of which type I am and 2) to realize that by definition I am all three.* *which is true for you as well, all three...but mostly one

Comments

  1. Naah, nanny naah, naah! Fristy fristy frist, frist!
    Damn that was difficult to write. Gots to finish my own post. I’ll readja later!

  2. Denise says:

    I sit in front of my laptop. How do I type a smile? lol
    That’s what I got – that clarklike grin, lips closed. But I’m feeling it. Enjoyable post – petting zoo – that will carry me for awhile.

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      ty… complete with, like those spots on the back that they get… total Wild Kingdon, ’round here.

  3. Kristi says:

    My dad showed me a photo going around facebook of a buck sleeping on a dog bed on someone’s porch. I don’t know if Una would share, but. . .

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      Suspect not.
      You know what’s interesting about dogs? Well, of course you do! But I notice that when the deer are around but recently left the area, when we let Una out, she not only charges out into the yard, she ‘bounds’ I choose to believe that that implies that she knows that what she smells is tall and might be far away and she’s bounding in order to get a view of them. What do you think?

      • Kristi says:

        Could be. The question is, what does she do when she does see them?

        • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

          she runs after them (or up to the fence, by which time we’re suggesting that she come inside and reflect on the necessity of responding to instinct without thought)

  4. Vanessa D. says:

    Deer look so much cuter in a field than they do leaping in front of a vehicle! I was fortunate to witness a fox crossing the road on my travels this week. They look more oversized cat-like than canine.

  5. Always glad to share hypo-gratitude with you, Clark.

  6. valj2750 says:

    I am in denial about the changing of the seasons. The deer in our woods are eating our hosta, and several of our other plants. I actually saw Fabio at Sam’s Club doing a leather jacket signing (his signature coat). He looks way hotter on the covers of those steamy harlequin novels. And speaking of 1969 . . . . . . .I left for college in pursuit of hippiedom.

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      … ah, the late 60’s early 70’s (would it surprise you to hear that, when I went off to college in 1969, I looked around at the people I liked and hung out with and started wearing a three piece suit and wingtip shoes? funny thing about those days in college, there was still (college) Juniors and Seniors who did not understand about the change in things, looking totally like Pleasantville throwbacks, against the influx of the long hair, fringe jacket crowd, of course I gravitated to the latter group, which is why I thought to adopt the more formal business attire (how better to rebel against the rebels?)

  7. I totally get your point with the faucet. We have solar cells for water heating on our roof, and when the sun burns down on the roof, our water is very, VERY hot. I usually have the dial at about 4 o’clock, everything else would be scalding. After a few days of next to no sun, the water cools down to normal again.

    Enjoy your weekend, Clark!

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      relativism at it’s most basic, no?

      • I’d think so :-) Looking forward to a time when the dial will be true again, and not a fun guessing game whether the girls will scream COLD!!!! or BURRRRRNNNNNNN! ;-)

        • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

          there’s subjective and there’s subjective… the too hot not so funny…. the too cold (ok, maybe a little funny and then only if it’s happening to another adult)…lol

  8. herheadache says:

    We saw some spotted deer in a graveyard this week. From the car, not from within.
    :-)
    Also spent my Saturday with several animals: farm and reptile.

  9. ivywalker says:

    :) thanks Clark

  10. jny_jeanpretty says:

    We have deer too! They are pretty, aren’t they?
    My fave part of your post: ” ‘Most Likely to be Mistaken for an English Teacher at virtually any Stage of Life’ ” thanks for that–I was howling. :)
    jeanthy

  11. I read something this week…what was it? A book. Which book…argh can’t remember! But there was a dog in it and the dogs name was UNA!!! How about that?
    You have lots of great things here that I nodded and smiled about – #2, #3, #4, #5, #6…just pretty much most of your list.
    Most likely to be mistaken for an English teacher at virtually any stage of life, eh? Hilarious to this actual English teacher. Well, former English teacher…
    I’m hoping tomorrow’s scale number is kind.

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      (I was debating using History Teacher as I have been accused of being one of those as well)…

      since you mention the Doctrine
      Teachers and Teaching: you will tend to find clarks(female) in the primary grades and the clarks(male) high school and college

  12. amycake76 says:

    Yeah, I totally wondered about how often you shower. I’m sorry it was cold.

  13. We never really had an actual “summer” here — then again I do live in Canada. I mean, I can still see snow from winter. Just kidding. It’s actually mounds of goose poop. They’re majestic birds the government says — nasty evil buggers. They hiss you know?
    So I’m still taking super hot showers and McLoving it.
    Totally random comment?

  14. dyannedillon says:

    I GOT A WHOLE ENTRY IN YOUR TTOT LIST! WOOOHOOOOOOO!!! Thanks! I’m assuming that you not only don’t have dark hair, but you also don’t have a Project Room, or am I assuming too much?

  15. Pat B says:

    I totally enjoyed reading your TTOT. Sometimes I have to really think hard about what are my 10 TTOT, and yes, I am one to try to see the positive in what has occurred during the week. I don’t deny the existence of sometimes less than positive experiences, but if I can see the good side or the funny side, I feel so much better.

    Your deer must have hopped the fence to our place. I’m sure I just recently saw them here. LOL

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      the herd is way bigger this year! (big enough, unfortunately for Una, that some go to the back yard (in photos) to eat pears and some go to the front yard for apples! she totally barks…but they are not dumb, they look up and as long as it’s just ‘a doggy in the window’ they go back to their meal)

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