Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
Hey! It’s Kristi and her bloghop, Finish the Sentence Friday. Talk about the curtains of near past parting! We were, like, in the same home room in the Ninth Grade at Blog High!
Back then, her and Stephanie and Janine and Kenya and them were like the total writer-grrls, when I slipped in the side-entrance on ‘the Facebook’, Mr. Newbie A Blogwriter. In fact, FTSF was the first bloghop I got involved in and, hell, through those weekly posts, I came to meet most of the people who I count as friends, all these years later. (Blogyears are like dog years only different. The ramp is steeper initially/ 1 blog year = 1 year in the ‘real’ world, 2 blog years = 23 years in the real world. Then the curve flattens out and, for me, having been ‘here’ since 2009, that makes me 89 ‘real’ years old, which isn’t quite the actual number).
Anyway. This week’s prompt:
“Why Do People Write…”
It happens that I know precisely why I write. Better I say, ‘I know precisely why I started writing’. Prior to June 2009 writing was not a feature of my reality, at least not as a diversion or form of expression or, in any manner, a common interest shared by friends. I started writing because I needed to express the Wakefield Doctrine. I made the decision to write a blog for that reason. Everything from that point on has been in the service of explaining and presenting ‘the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers’ to as many different people as I possibly could manage.
The internet in general, and the blogosphere in particular, have a whole bunch of people who hang out, express opinion, and generally interact socially, albeit, virtually. I went where the blog took me, which included, of course, ‘the Facebook’. And that’s when my ‘need to write’ really took off. I met people who had blogs and people who ran bloghops and I quickly became aware of the fact that I needed to learn to write better. Just so I could hang out with my new friends. Not that anyone said anything, however I recognized that the price of years of daydreaming through English and Composition classes had finally come due.
That’s why I write.
The Wakefield Doctrine is a peculiar thing, particularly in the context of a person who is a clark. The Wakefield Doctrine became my passion and because of that, while there was never any question that I might stop writing, I needed to speed up the improvement of my skills. I thought, go hang out with people who write better than you and, if they don’t throw you out, you’re bound to get better; all through the years of writing a post a day, through the cycles of ‘hey! that wasn’t bad’….. ‘oh my god, I suck at this writing thing!’ I’ve persevered and while I still cycle between, “hey I’m not so bad at this writing thing‘ and ‘god, this wouldn’t get me a D in 10th Grade English!’, I know this is a common condition among those who believe that if an idea or a view on life is written with enough willingness to risk ridicule, others will encourage and support you.
Kristi is one of those early people I was lucky to have met. (Don’t tell her, but in real life? if I encountered her somewhere, I wouldn’t have had the nerve to introduce myself.) Fortunately, I hung in with the blog posts and the bloghops and such and I consider the opportunity to get to hang out with her and the others I count as friends to be a total, fricken gift from the internet.
…that was a fairly long way to say, “I write to know that there are people in this world who I can connect with and, by doing so, enhance my life.”
About clarkscottroger
Okay, Mr. Clark. Great story. But I gotz a scott question. So, I work with one. Closely now. I swear she looks like she’s perpetually annoyed with me. Is it just me being a clark perceiving it that way, or is she *always* annoyed at me? My scottian brother in law is similar, but now that I’m spending so much time around a (female) scott, I’m learning these little quirks. These qualities are a little alarming to the people-pleasing conflict-avoiding clark in me….
“Is it just me being a clark perceiving it that way, or is she *always* annoyed at me?”
ah ha! the key to the secret of the universe (or one of them) but definitely a key to fluency in the Wakefield Doctrine!
(the tough part is that both answers are true…but the only one you really have access to is the one in the world of a clark. Question: does the person seem angry or annoyed…. scotts get angry rogers tend to be the ones who get annoyed. one is personal the other is personal. (didn’t say that right)… you can get a scott mad at you but it’s not personal, it’s usually situational… once the situation has been resolved or has simply passed, they’re not mad…
but that being aware that we all ‘translate’ what the other person does into terms that make sense in our reality is totally valuable. quick example:
(stop me if I’ve already told this story)
a clarklike agent was having some problems with a listing and could not find a way to resolve it and so went to the rogerian manager for advice. he said, ‘let me give it some thought and come back in an hour’
the goes back and the manager says, “I feel that the best thing you can do is …. and gave her a written list of things to do and, went through each item with the agent.
the clark came away very angry at the roger for insulting them
this was a problem of translation. a roger, living in the quantifiable world of the Herd views lists are enhancements of information, the ordering of the items actually (in the rogerian worldview) adds value. a clark, of course, sees a list from another person relating to the situation that the clark is involved in as an insult… we don’t need more information, we need a new view…. 1) 2) 3)…. no way.
that is why you sensing that there might be something in what you are perceiving that is not something they are experiencing is so very insightful
please pardon my typos and such…
PS not that you wanna, but I think it would be tons of fun if you had a Q & A column where we could send in our questions. Though, the call-in works fine for that, too. lol.
But you know…a “Dear Clark” column sounds fun! :D
Excellent idea!
P.S. Yeah, like he said. rogers will take things personally ALL the time, are easily offended and will harbor a grudge (even for years!) scotts on the other hand can blow up at you and be joking with you 10 minutes later. I’ve often confused really, really “strong” rogers with scotts. Until I get in their face or vice vesa lol
It is the challenge for our people – to know that we as clarks “think” we know what the other person is experiencing until we do the whole translation thing, from their perspective, their world view. What a wonderful life tool, eh? :D
Ooh, do that!
LOL…Dear Clark…how does a CLARK (as opposed to a roger) not take things so personally? It’s one of my life’s challenges. **hehe…just playing along. :D Thanks Denise and Lisa…what fun! :D
(a thought about that question)…maybe it’s not so much that we, as clarks, should not take things so personally as we should decide which one of use we feel that action affects. (not that clarks are multiple’ed personality’d) but we maintain at least 2 fiction regarding our ‘selfs’. I suspect that one of them doesn’t give a shit while the other thinks there’s nothing else to do but to feel hurt or offended, yeah know?
Perfect! I enjoyed this so much, especially your intro. You and I have crossed writing paths along the way, probably once upon a FTSF. I like thinking of blog years as dog years so to speak. If no good at math, so since you’ve done it, I’m guessing I’m 88ish years old.
Amen to that.
How have we never crossed paths in the virtual hallway? I have met and hugged Kristi and Janine is pretty much my best friend. Kenya too!
I was probably in the bathroom smoking or in detention…lol
Excellent post Clark. Damn, has it been that long??!
Holy hell, my awesome friend. There’s so much to say. I might need to sneak into the girl’s room in the high school hallway, sneak a Marlboro Red, and process… but alas, I am old (and will always remember the “gravity happened, bitch” lol. Ok, so I’m trying to do math but have been in the car for 8 hours today, 8 hours on Friday, but… I think you were blogging way before me. In fact, I KNOW you were, because Tucker was born in 2009, and I didn’t start mine until he was 3. It was Steph, Janine, Kenya, the rest who were cool. I just glummed onto the whole “I LIKE THIS FTSF” thing… and now, well, here we are. Anywho….
FTSF was the first bloghop I got involved in, and I love love it to this day. Mostly, it’s the only time I’m writing, which is crappy, and I need to be better but also got to the whole “WHY?” stage that I’d promised elementary school me that would never happen.
Speaking of junior high, what happened to Vid Chat? I miss that. OH and duh, we DID meet in person. You blew me off for breakfast, remember? ;)
Hey! KrisssTi! (phonetically, that would be enhanced by the heavier accent on the ‘T’…how is it that we look to opposites to express what is within, wait, I know! secondary scottian aspect!)
where were we? the early days of the life in the ‘sphere. it was fun and, in a sense, it was all that I might have hoped that my JR-SR High School years (aka ‘the Lord of the Flies years’) had been but totally weren’t.
lol (I just read that last, how clarklike am I?! it takes a virtual world to live a full clarklike life)
yeah it was fun and there was that sense of discovery and excitement that is only possible among contemporaries… weren’t no big brother or sister around to tell us what it was supposed to be like…. you don’t suppose…. damn! I just answered my question and your musing… we had that (virtual) time and now we’re in the early adult phase.. (Hey! any one seen Kristi? yeah, I did, she was at the supermarket with that husband of hers, they’re both so right and so happy, I miss her‘ and ‘clark? I heard he’s working on something, he always had that potential...’)
Hey! a finish the sentence prompt “If your first years in the blogosphere were high school… where are you now?”
lol
OOH I like that sentence! Wanna cohost with me?
Absatotally
This is awesome in so many ways. I haven’t been around here quite as long as some of the rest, but I definitely love that writing out here has brought so many wonderful people into my life.
This struck me – I recognized that the price of years of daydreaming through English and Composition classes had finally come due. I spent a lot of time daydreaming through those classes so it seems strange to me sometimes that I’ve ended up in the life I have. Go figure.
Love your last sentence – that pretty much sums it up.
There is so much in what you write (in your FTSF), it’s like a handful of pebbles in the still pond, rather than a single one.
I fricken found myself looking for a ‘diagram sentences’ app! No! serially! For whatever reason I could not find one (god! did I really just say that with the overtone of disappointment?! ayieee)
Of course, that question lurks for all of us… had someone said, ‘Now you must write’ could I have written anything close to whatever it is that I write today? Suspecting not… not enough experience and most of all, cared way way too much about appearances then…
Connecting with people – that’s a perfect reason to write! And I totally agree about the blogyears; on a positive note, I look very good for my (old) age. And you met Kristi in real life, she would smile and hug you and you would not be nervous at all.
This place (the blogosphere) has so much in common with the ‘real’ world which, in turns, makes the more idiosyncratic aspects of the virtual world more… something. We don’t age, for instance. Our history and the balance of our lives are not all up there whenever we meet people on line. This virtual world is, imo, more real by being more up front in terms of how much of our lives (virtual and otherwise) are a fiction.
“I write to know that there are people in this world who I can connect with and, by doing so, enhance my life.” – I love that!
ty V