Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks of the future, scotts in the present and rogers from the past)
Hey ho, almost, the Year, she is ending. ( I did, in fact, refer to 2012 with the female gender-specific pronoun! Trust us, it is necessary in order for the music vid to make the inferences that my writing skill is not sufficiently developed to make on its own.) I think that almost everyone out there reading this Post will, at this point, experience some fairly strong and distinct feelings about the year 2012. I will venture to say these feelings will coalesce around… ‘ok! like a roller coaster, it was fun, (you’re) glad you rode it… but now, for a while it is time for a little normal life.’
The thing is New Years Eve (as a ‘holiday’) really is kinda shop worn, the victim of too many years of decorating the Day (mostly the ‘Eve’) with culture symbolism. The whole, good cheer lets all go out and pay way too much for not very good food in order to stand in a room with a bunch of strangers waiting to congratulate each other for still being alive, is so 1950’s
This is not to say that celebrating New Years Day ( and it’s more attractive twin, New Year’s Eve) is a pointless diversion. It’s just that, of the big three holidays, ( Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years), New Years Day is the most insidious in the ways that it is used by the forces of society and culture. Out with the old, in with the new! There is a chance to renew your life, to cast aside the old ways of thinking about life and take on a new view. The message is, ‘hey! no matter how bad last year was, (we promise) next year might be better! no! better than that! ‘hey the worse last year seems, the more you should invest in the hope for the coming year.’
It should come as no surprise that New Year’s Eve (and Day) are totally the holiday of clarks. If there is one thing that clarks do far and away better than scotts and rogers it is: hope.
Forget the outward manifestation of this holiday, i.e. a night of revelry and abandon, the real theme of New Years is hope and that is what draws clarks. While scotts will party because it is almost a societal mandate and rogers will talk about what others have said they have done in the past year, it will be the clarks who grow excited and yet stay quiet, making (their) plans for the coming year.
(For a clark) the approaching New Year is both a time of hope and a dangerous time to measure (the) progress they have made, it is an opportunity to set new goals yet not without risk, as the inevitable assessment of the outcome of previous goals. clarks like to think that they have improved their lives, not realizing that only clarks will think of it in quite those terms ( a scott will simply plan to get more, a roger will know that they will gain more recognition…in the coming new Year), clarks are the only of of the three willing to inflict pain on themselves in the belief that by doing so they have earned the right to discover what it is they need to do this new Year, never realizing that the discomfit is self-inflcited. clarks being the self-less givers (of the three personality types) will frame their resolutions in terms of the other people in their life, to do better so that…. they will have this, he/she will be happier, the family will be better off. Of the three personality types, of the realities that we call the worldview of clarks, scotts and rogers, it is clarks who have access to a nearly endless supply of hope for the future and that is their biggest shortcoming; this capacity to believe the future can be better, brighter, happier is the reason that clarks will constantly be trying to improve the future, rarely ever giving themselves the gift of knowing that it is their present that is what they are, that the future, the new Year is not where life is lived, right here is… today is that place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si_gaMUumKY
About clarkscottroger
Probably bad that I look at New Year’s Day as any other day. I mean in my youth, New Year’s Eve was a fun party night, but now that we have kids and my husband has to work on the New Year’s Eve, it feels like any other day to me. That said loved the music video choice. Can never go wrong with Sinatra!!!
@Janine
yeah, from the very start of this blogging thing I have had this thing happen (not always, but over the years) where one song sticks itself into the Post as it’s being written. I assume there is some connection somewhere, don’t always know what it is, at least not consciously but I have learned to keep them in
Holy Shit Damn! Good for you! I am giving you a singular standing ovation for this post. LOL
Now, how many clarks will have the balls (ooh! I said “balls”) to read and recognize and not bolt. Immediately.
Dont’cha just love self-development!
But here’s the thing, scotts and rogers will almost certainly concur about one of the points made today and it will be the scotts first because they recognize the weak or anyone giving shit away for free first. The rogers…..they’ll see the giving away thing and be glad they’re not like that.
Tough love baby, tough love:)
You have no idea how similar what you wrote is to what I wrote in my journal a few days ago… Of course, I am tired of this pattern of hope and the lack of defined progress, so I was thinking of new ways of looking at it.
I decided, that rather than working on my weaknesses and areas I feel I fall short in, to focus on what is good and what I want to keep, going into the new year. There is so much I love about my life… Why always be digging as for the negative? Why not do more of what is good? Why not do more of what makes for a happy family?
@Molly
I smile and think ‘what a Doctrine!’ (the similarity) and this is nothing but a good thing, as far as I’m concerned. With the innate creativity of the type (clarks), association among inidivuals of that worldview.
….cool
Alrighty then. It would seem that you clarks (with the exception of Janine as far as the non-descript day) put waaaay too much stress on yourselves. The whole “…constantly be trying to improve the future, rarely ever giving themselves the gift of knowing that it is their present that is what they are, that the future, the new Year is not where life is lived, right here is…” thing is yet another timeline for clarks to go missing. As if there is not enough already. OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit (actually no I’m not) Honestly, I don’t know how you do it and manage to remain (relatively) sane! Your brains must be like the this: http://i.istockimg.com/file_thumbview_approve/848968/2/stock-photo-848968-rubber-band-cluster.jpg The self-suffering. Good Lord…
And then there is this scottian female who has never made a New Year’s Resolution. Why do people do that? If you want to start, stop, improve, change doing something don’t wait ’til next year. Just frickin’ do it.
@Jennifer
…and that’s what makes the Doctrine such the amazing thing that it is! it is not that the scottian way is better than or worse than what a clark or a roger might do, but the key is that it makes sense (given the individual timeline) how the world seems and it, in fact is (from within a particular worldview).
The tool is simply that we have the potential of all three within ourselves, not ‘learning’ and no ‘changing’ necessary! can I get a ‘damn!’
Dood. This post was like a SLAP – but it a good way! I can’t believe how you just spelled out New Year’s Eve. My husband is also a clark and we spend more time thinking about how things will be even better this coming year, how we’ll be in a better position than now, how we’re going to do more alms-giving, and how we’re going to improve ourselves. Holy schnikes – you done reached into my head and predicted my New Year! Nice one, Clark! ;)
@Cyndi
Why thank you Cyndi! as I implied in my response to Jennifer (below) the fun is just beginning! Think of the advantages we have being able to talk to other clarks* and even to scotts and rogers
*the key is that they (the other clarks) know that you know… we tend not to be too open to ‘non-Outsiders’ so having this little place is def a cool thing.. sort of ‘an insider club for outsiders’ lol
And that is why the clark are a positive person we love being around. Thanks for this, Clark! Am pleased to say that though my inclination is to be negative, I find that such positivity has rubbed off on me. Do continue being a ray of hope for the new year.
@Michelle
This will be a very interesting new Year!
“And that is why the clark are a positive person we love being around….. I find that such positivity has rubbed off on me. Do continue being a ray of hope for the new year.”
Wow! Finally! See?! clarks are positive and inspirational and not total downers…..we can be rays of hope for others Let’s try being beacons of success for our own damn selves. Hoo-ra!
Life is good
Life is nice
Cake or pie
Just give me a slice
Now
I’m thinking for 2013… brevity shall rule.
Now this is just what I needed to read! Like Cyndi says….it’s a “slap”, but a good one! Sounds like the Clarks of the world have the absolute right attitude! Super post….here’s to a bright, positive 2013! :)
@Melanie
I totally agree and we surely will have all that in 2 13 as long as we…’don’t forget’ ! lol (To all our rogerian and scottian Readers, this is a clark joke, about how we can have ‘the Answer’ in our hands and then something happens and we forget (to make it worse/funnier) we do not forget the answer, we just forget that we have it!)