TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine- | the Wakefield Doctrine TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine- | the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

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

‘Bella in Flight. An example of full commitment to the moment.’
(Landscape Orientation)
A photo of Bella at the moment of success in catching a frisbee.
She was of the traditional German Shepherd colorings, i.e. dark, nearing black on her back, light brown-to-sable down her legs. Her head was redish brown, light around the eyes and black snout.
She is in the very center of the photo. The background (lawn below, woods behind) is out of focus. She is not.
The camera is with her as she flies from right to left, the woods and lawn are, in a sense, left behind. Such photos are very real examples of one staying in the here and now.
While tempting to describe Bella as ‘flying through the air’ it is clear in the photo that she’s not even thinking about flying. (Not the slightest hint of flapping her fore or hind legs to either side).
What Bella is doing in the photo is running as fast as she can in order to capture the frisbee. And if the earth cannot keep up with her legs, then it’ll just get left behind.
Kind of an example of when we allow our essential selves to express without factoring in the limitations we have created for the world around us.
(Note: Bella is not looking at the camera, proud of her accomplishment. She isn’t really looking at the frisbee. She is capturing the prey. It’s what dogs do.)

Mimi does this thing with a ‘themed’ TToT. Very cool. Will try it this week.

Just need to find a unifying thread, then look to the world around me (and my life) and list ten examples. How hard can it be?

(…this just in… kinda not so easy.)

For anyone out there who happens to be new to the TToT, you know how the youtube is full of ‘How To’ videos? And how the production values range from range from ‘Someone-running-a-vacuum-in-the-next-room-making-it-all-but-impossible-to-hear-what-they’re-saying’ to the ‘OMG-I-could-spend-the-day-just-watching-this-person- talk,-even-with-the-oleomargerine-accent’? This post is not like that. The TToT is full of writers of exceptional skill and style. Each individual contribution will demonstrate the power of the written thought. The other posts, thats ‘How It’s Done’.

Maybe some ‘backstory’ would help, the raison dêtre, if you will. Originally an exercise organized by the founderini, L. Lewis (no, no relation to Jack*) The idea was to force oneself to find things to be grateful for. (Mind you, this did not start as a bloghop. She started writing a post each week on the theme. Very impressive effort). Well one thing lead to another and the bloghop, Ten Things of Thankful, came into existence.

As a reflection of the natural world, the TToT bloghop grew and people came and went and eventually Lizzi found in Josie Two Shoes a kindred soul. I can say without reservation that Josie has not only continued the existence of this bloghop, (no small task in and of itself), she has advanced the spirit of it. To create a place where all sorts of people can share all sorts of experiences that confirm the positive and encourage the identification among those of like minds (and those of us here at the Doctrine, lol) and have fun doing it.

So that’s the history. (sorry, rogers, can’t do the whole post on history**) To the present!

We try to share Ten Things that elicit a sense of gratitude.

(Damn! I just realized my theme.) (Double damn! Intrinsic to this theme is the absence of explication.) (Sorry guy, I just write these, I don’t make up the rules.)

1) Una and her people.

2) Phyllis

3) Work and the challenge it affords me to take on (or not).

4) Technology (which, in this context, is like saying ‘cooking’ when the topic is ‘My Favorite Foods’) and the blogosphere.

5) The people in the virtual world with whom I am individually a friend and as a member of (a) cohort of the imaginative.

6) The Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) ’cause as the old saying holds, “Give me an Etch-a-Sketch in the shape of a book with a Dyna Label that says, ‘Rules’ and I will move the world.’***

7) THIS SPACE AVAILABLE (For any new Reader reluctant to throw in with a group that has someone like me for a member2, just go ahead send in one (or two) Grat Items in a comment, I’ll post it here and you can get a feel for participation. I betcha ya don’t hate it.)

Hey, Josie was having difficulty getting the comment section to work for her and she was good enough to email her comment. (She has a way with comments, so here it is, in it’s entirety.

Hi Clark!
 Once again I find I am unable to post my comment on your blog. Darn it!  But I want you to know I am reading and reacting…. so here it is!  :-)
This was great! I love Mimi’s TToT themes, and you are right that it isn’t all as easy as it might seem, but it does cause us to look deeper into things, to see more and be more aware. When I did my theme on my mother last week, it turned out to be insightful and good therapy. :-)
 I love your caption under Bella’s photo at the top. You are right, she isn’t thinking about flying, or afraid of launching into the air if need be. She isn’t looking at the camera or seeking an audience(or grabbing for her phone to capture the moment). She has her eye on the prize… the goal of catching the Frisbee. She is truly living in the moment… a great example for us all!
 I am happy to see the Una Garden back in action, may your tomatoes grow and flourish as your writing has!
 PS – I am a fan of CS Lewis, and the Screwtape Letters in particular…  pure creative genius!

8) Sunday Supplement

This year, ‘A’ is for tomato.
Una inspects the first letter planted for the coming summer.

9) the Theme? (either: footnotes and paratheseses, or the Wakefield Doctrine; probably both)

10) Secret Rule 1.3

 

 

tuneage

* seriously, how cool is this internet? (at least for clarks)… that reference to ‘Jack’ is because I had to check the internet for what CS Lewis’ initials stood for (Clive Staples… no, really!). Well the last ‘search return’ on the first page said: “But “Jack,” as C.S. Lewis’s friends knew him, was not bothered by fashion. He was meticulous about the precise use of words, the quality of evidence presented…” (Christian History   thanks guys)

** theres an intriguing insight into the Wakefield Doctrine! rogers are the history buffs and clarks remember. Cryptic? Yes. Accurate and informative once it is understood? Very much so.1

1) ok…ok, I can hear Josie and Kristi chiding me, ‘Now clark. You mustn’t tease. New Readers want to learn about the Wakefield Doctrine, but sometimes we think you enjoy being provocative just a little too much.’  (Those of an age, think: June Lockhart or Barbara Billingsly)

*** somewhat paraphrased

2) old joke… I don’t tell jokes all that well so…

So come on down and join in the best of all bloghops, the TToT


Share

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. phyllis says:

    I like the theme.

  2. 15andmeowing says:

    Nice theme and list of thankfuls.

  3. Pat B says:

    I’ve never come across the name Clive in reading census records or other historical records. Staples I’ve known as a surname and CS Lewis possibly had an ancestor with the surname of Staples. I did see that Clive is a form of Clifford.

    One of our dogs loved catching Frisbees, but others preferred tennis balls. Just stay out of their way when they are headed for the whatever has been thrown in their direction if you don’t want to get knocked down. LOL

    I didn’t realize that the TTOT blog hop didn’t start out as a blog hop. Little by little I am learning a little more of the history. Here a little, there a little.

    I never saw the movie Annie Hall. May have to watch that one. Thanks for sharing.

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      That alone would make the price of access to the internet worth while (as I’m found of saying, ‘like the world’s largest used book store, a place I spent much time during the pre-internet days).

      I know what you mean. Bella enjoyed the frisbee but Una has never expressed much interest at all. But then, unlike Ola and Bella, Una has very little interest in water (due to her long hair, I suspect). We have learned Una’s preferred paths up and down the stairs in the house. Save us a broken hip or two, lol

      Yep, Lizzi was writing it as a thing at her blog. And that was back when she first arrived in the ‘sphere; her posts would get one or two comments(! that has changed, of course).

      It was quite a funny movie, imo

  4. Sageleaf says:

    LOL…that Woody Allen joke… and your theme, it looks like it’s Una and friends! Haha. And for #7, “This space available” so reads like something out of a real estate magazine. And that’s precisely why I love it: the juxtaposition of the virtual with reality makes my head tingle.
    Oh and you must be writing another novel, yes? Because your writing takes on glittery adjectives and colorful phrases in ways that only a writer could do…
    Just sayin’. :)

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      lol yeah… I like the concept (of space available in a post) but I believe you’re the only one who has availed themselves of our little feature. Virtual and real do sometimes overlap, especially for our people, no? Actually I’m working the second draft of Almira. The writer’s group I belong to has a thing where one of the published members will critique a draft of up to 50 pages (for a small, token fee). Gonna do that this week. The hardest part is writing a ‘blurb’. (Not as difficult as a synopsis, but since I wrote Almira as a serial on the now defunct Jukepop, I never had a need for a ‘whats this thing about?’)… So I gots to write a ‘There was a girl from Kansas who returned from college and discovered that home is not always exactly as we were brought up to believe….”

      Hey! thanks! just got an opening line.* Once again, you have that quality that brings out the… creative in others.

      …just sayin’ ;}

      *god knows the first line is the toughest

  5. And so, how is it that decades had gone by before I discovered that one of my favorite songs from that time, was written by Prince?
    Interesting combo of vids :D
    Most excellent photo of “flying dog”. She soared in all manner, no doubt.
    Good TToT.

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      yeah if we could see into the history books late at night in the libraries the words in the books would be not quite fixed to the pages.

  6. Kristi says:

    I enjoy that photo of Bella. Action shots aren’t easy to capture!
    So, Jack, huh? I wouldn’t have guessed that was short for C.S. :-)

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      Agree (about the difficulty)… my approach is ‘take as many as you can’… that being said, this may have been a shot taken by a friend of Phyllis that had skill and a real camera

      yeah, ‘Jack’ ain’t the internet something’?

  7. MindOverMeta says:

    I love your picture of “flying Bella”. Dogs really know how to live in the moment :)

  8. valj2750 says:

    Here’s a theme for you. A jam sandwich. Gratitude is the jam and the writing is the fluffy white stuff holding the jam together. Did I mention that I love bread?

    • clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

      lol (yeah, but what about those holes in the bread (often along the crust) that the jam tries to escape through?)

Trackbacks

  1. […]  the Wakefield Doctrine. Of course! Who doesn’t enjoy removing the guesswork […]