Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
I am accepting on faith and because I received the ‘connect the TToT linky thing’ in my email from Lizzi, that today is, in fact, Saturday. Which means, the Ten Things of Thankful, of which I am one of 10 hosts.
If you’re joining us for the first time: our founderess, Lizzi, provides a clear, simple and easy to understand explanation of her vision for this bloghop, it’s down at the bottom of this here page here (below the TToT icon and above the photos of the linked-in Posts). You can scroll right to that section and learn what this bloghop is all about or, …or! you can read your way there. (Just between you and me, some Readers are better off getting a good, reassuringly presented description of what you will find here… as for the rest of you, well you came to the blogosphere to get away from the everyday routine of the real world, non? well, I’m glad you could make it.)
The simple direction to participants is: tell us about some of things from the previous week that you are grateful for, ten things, if you would be so kind. If you’re the kind of Reader I really look for, right now you’re saying, “Look out!! clark… last week had one of the most powerful holidays of your culture milieu and ,,,it is a celebration of gratitude!!! Look out!!! If you try to be grateful for that, you’ll be pulled under like a riptide of thankfulness!!”
Since we certainly don’t want that to happen, lets… ( continue our little metaphor and swim parallel to the shore for a while, gratitude-istically speaking), and use the Wakefield Doctrine as a context for the first part of this week’s list, after all, as must be abundantly clear to any Reader here at this blog, ‘the Doctrine’ as it’s known to regular Readers, forms the backdrop, the raison d’être for everything I do online so it makes sense that I at least start this week’s list with times grounded in my efforts to write a blog.
…this last week? am I grateful for the Wakefield Doctrine because:
- I have friends who I’ve met because I tend to go places (to try to promote the Doctrine) that I would not have likely gone were it otherwise. Joining an writers group on ‘the Facebook’ exhibit A, no frickin way I would have had the nerve to not only be a member (ha ha…secret joke) but to actively participate in the bloopy bloggers long to enough to meet some really exceptional people, i.e. Cyndi and Christine and Dyanne and Jak, Michelle and zoe and Lizzi to name a few. I just would not have been able to pull it off, if I did not have… what we used to call ‘a premise’ to allow me to overcome my fear
- of course, knowing Lizzi lead to being asked (!! yeah, I know!) to participate in the TToT as a co-host like I would have stepped up and asked to be included… yeah, right ‘def Grat’ there!
- it allows me to recognize when a premise is not working and have the confidence in myself to simply stop…not get tangled up in a major re-write, just move on… a very self-consciousness-engendering event, but I am totally grateful that I can!
I have standards for playing with the rules of this hop and I have too much respect for my co-hostinae for me to behave in too frivolous a manner . Because, while I participate on a voluntary basis and it reads like I’m having fun with it (which I hope it does and I do), participating in this exercise is totally a serious thing for me. Not to get all heavy*, but for me personally, finding within 10 things that I feel I am able to claim to feel grateful for, is not easy. Not because I’m not grateful for them (well, maybe a little of that), but because, for me, expressing something as personal as my feelings in a public forum is a challenge. Now, in no way is this blog meant to be all touchy feely get-in-touch-with-your-inner-blogger way, but some thing are easier for some people that other things.
(to continue…)
4) I am grateful for a chance to have a conversation, nearly in the real world, with zoe last evening. We did a video chat with google hangout and we talked for quite a bit and I came away thinking… damn! some people are as cool in person as they are in the blogosphere
5) I am grateful for my work (the following is kind of a lie), even though this week had a difficult client interaction event, which is all part of the job, but it was highly stressful because it involved telling the client that things were no going down the optimal path and that is never a fun thing to do, but I did and, by doing so, provided the service I was hired to provide, so I am grateful that I was in a position to do that
6) I am grateful I don’t work outdoors for a living anymore. My wife Phyllis bought one of those portable, canvas-over-a-framework garages (all assembly required!) for her new car, and we started the process last weekend, windchill about 15 degrees. We got about 1/4 of the thing assembled which was decent, but needed to take breaks frequently because of numb hands. I was able to remind myself that in another circumstance I would be grateful for being able to work in conditions that caused my hands to lose all sensation.
7) hey! twofer!!… I was grateful for the fact that I don’t work outdoors but I also am totally grateful that somehow I’ve managed to cultivate and maintain a certain perspective, one that allows me to compare what I might be hating (at a given moment) with the fact of the possibility that things could be otherwise…as in, I would be wishing for the chance to work in the freezing temperature with hands that go numb in about 15 minutes… it’s a perspective thing… I’m really grateful for that
8) oh! almost forgot… I got my trademark certificate (for the phrase/words ‘Wakefield Doctrine’) and, while some of my friends collect cars and others are into boats and golf and fishing and such, and despite feeling a bit silly on occasion at the idea of spending the time and the money to get this thing (nicely framed on my wall) I am glad that I did…( Me: “for $500 what is a trademark certificate for the Wakefield Doctrine?” Alex Trebek: “Please! Contestants! Provide your List Items in the form of an expression of gratitude”)
9) While I cannot say that I am grateful to Pilgrims or any Settlers, I can say that I am grateful for a comfortable Thursday this week.
10) so, new Reader? (who was willing to read your way down here?) I am grateful for your company (…nothing weird, we all do this thing when we write…imagining a person right here who we tell ‘the story’ to, our description of our reality providing a total stranger with the gift of a view of a world… we do all do that, don’t we?)
* an old term used by young people a long time ago…’heavy’ sort of a serious appellation for something possessing remarkable attributes
About clarkscottroger
I too am so grateful that I don’t work outdoors, especially during this time of the year, because as you know so not a fan of the cold and winter in general. But still happy we are indeed leading up to the holidays and Christmas here. Now if we could just skip January and February and possibly even part of March I would be all set! But seriously, thankful for friends like you and wishing you a great rest of the weekend now!! :)
Janine
thanks! you guys do the same and remember today is not Sunday…but yesterday wasn’t a real Friday…. I think Monday is our only hope (to get back on a normal schedule)>
Haha…no pilgrims or settlers? lol
Glad yours was a comfy Thursday. I thought of you when I decided to just sit back…and observe the goings-on. I do a goodly amount of observing, but lots of talking, too. I decided to actively observe. It’s so funny, those human relationships. So interesting…entertaining…and awkward all at the same time.
Cyndi
yeah… know what cha mean about actively observing, in a weird way (no!) it’s kinda like watching a musician perform, an artist paint (while there is a voice-over narrator to help us notice some of the fine points in say, brush strokes or hammer-ons…) ain’t nothing wrong with that as a pastime!
And yet, in spite of the challenge (which you rise to, and often exceed) repeatedly, you DO look like you’re having fun with it, and it reads well indeed.
Glad to have met you, and always Thankful to the Bloppies for putting me in touch with you and others.
Also TOTALLY angry at my roger that I missed out on chatting with you and Zoe :(
Lizzi
thank you! interesting times (yes, even more interesting times)… am playing with terms for this increasingly beneficial association of clarks… to be sure no one mistakes what we are doing (consciously and non-consciously) as being anything like a support group thing… (I mean, we’re frickin clarks! we provide support! we don’t accept support, damn it!) I’m liking the term, ‘peer group’
whats your thoughts on that… (I don’t really plan on not being the Outsider any time soon…) but I like the idea of having peers
Sounds rogerian to me – group? Peers? Isn’t the point that we’re all alone together? ;)
Lizzi
Precisely. the idea (to me) that the label ‘peers’ connotes is an equal… not a partner or any (necessary) inter-relationship…simply that as peers, you can identify with much of my experience. (Identify is trickier than it sounds… it goes to the very core idea here at the Doctrine, i.e. not how do you relate to this or that or the world, rather how do you relate yourself to this or that or (the world)
worse…or better, this does not imply that one has something to give to the other…after all, we’re Outsiders. it does imply that I can take something from the association…more to the point, my experience (or relating myself to the world around me) is altered by my identifying with your experienceseses…. ya know?
I seem to be having a problem with leaving a comment so if this is like the hundredth one, i will apologize now.
number 1. is there a formal writing group? And if not is anyone interested?
number 3. How does thay make you feel clark? Lol!
number 4. Awwwwwwwww….thank you! I so enjoyed talking to you last night. It’s just really fun to talk to people who really enjoy talking about what they’re talking about. And for skip to actually stay asleep and polite through the whole thing was a big fat hairy deal! Thanksgiving killed him!
and lizzi yeah I miss seeing you too! Hopefully we’ll be able to touch base sometime before I have to relocate to England again to do it!
zoe
there seem to be a number of them… the BB&G is the Facebook place that I ran into Lizzi and Cyndi and them….lol (hey baby… wanna come up and see my footnotes?)
OHHHHHH but DO come to England :D
oMG Clark! I forgot to tell you when I got to your spot here this morning or more like this afternoon I realized I had forgotten it was Saturday! That post of mine was put together in about 5 minutes flat and all the while I was thinking I wonder if this is how clark feels on Saturday morning? although this post for you there was no lamenting that you had to write it quickly before work
zoe
one word: ask Kristi lol there is at times (in what is undeniably a disturbingly increasing rate) a synchroncity among clarks writing posts, particularly when there is a ‘common starting point’… just in case you haven’t yet gotten creeped out by this thing of ours (I am glad I have the counsel of more level heads like Cyndi and Denise and Christine… one of whom not too, too long ago said to me, “er, clark? you know how when you met some girl on the facebook or the internet and you immediately recognize her as a clark and you say, ‘hi! I can tell you right now what you have on the floor of your bedroom closet in terms of footwear!’ well, cut it out! you’re right of course, but…. stop that!!”)
HA! Yeah that would creep me out and I totally get it!
zoe
lol… “wait!! come back!! don’t run away! I won’t tell you about your first relationship or what you think at night…really I won’t!”
(I will, with this comment stop making that joke!*)
I used to love a joke that I would do when trying to get people to write comments… it was actually ‘lifted’ (in principle from a statement attributed to David Ogilvy)… I would say, “so write us a comment on anything that might puzzle you about the Doctrine and remember! there are no stupid questions, just your questions” ( I really didn’t mean it in a mean way… those around me were aghast…eventually I stopped).
musta been a bunch of thin skinned Rogers….I think that’s pretty funny! But then again now you know I’m secretly more cynical than I let on! well okay it’s not really a secret.
lol… a clark…cynical? nah, no way!
Like you I am also grateful that I don’t work outside. I grew up on a small farm so I think that put me off outside jobs for life! How cool that you met Zoe in almost real life.
Yvonne
yes through the magic of the internets! we (Lizzi and Michelle and Denise) and I started doing the Wakefield Doctrine Video Brunches on Sunday mornings which is a fun way to meet people you know online… (even if you’re a clark*) so when schedules around Thanksgiving lined up it worked out well with Zoe
don’t like the cold…a sure thing to interfere with working outdoors! lol
I’m glad I don’t have to commute either..but I still have to practice actively observing. A great thanksgiving weekend to you, Clark!
Michelle
Thank you. We are still trying to get the garage built, the weather is so not cooperating! (and by that I don’t mean the ‘good bad weather’ but rather the ‘bad good weather’! (the first would be simply raining or snowing and generally conditions that you don’t have to go out into, the second is when it is bright and sunny and looks nice but the temperature is below freezing and you have to go outside and try!). Will report back lather today. Have fun with the painting!
A trademark, huh? That’s pretty cool! Congrats!
Kristi
thanks…yeah, it’s got a little stamped gold seal on it and everything… (scene from Wizard of Oz with the Wizard telling the Scarecrow that the problem is that he doesn’t have a diploma!) lol
I, too , forgot that Saturday had rolled around. That’s what holidays in the middle of the week will do to you. I had to think twice when I got the tweet from Lizzi and was totally unprepared. But since I am just to post about my thankfuls, I recovered quickly. In my fluster, I think I agreed to an ab workout that has me doubled over at this very moment!
Love the idea that the Wakefield Doctrine is trademarked. You have to admit that must feel pretty cool!
Aw Clark, I am very late on my round around the hop but I totally love that this blog hop makes you step out of your comfort zone and that you take up the challenge each week again and again! Kudos for that!
Also: congrats on the “‘Wakefield Doctrine” certificate! :-) That’s awesome!
Joy
thank you! yeah… I haven’t had to think about it for a couple of days, it’s one of the those…”oh man! I’m out of ideas! what the hell am I gonna do?!?” but I would do the hop regardless it’s fun.