Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
Sure, at first glance, the Title of this week’s TToT Post may cause an average Reader (of blog Posts) to:
- stop and think, ok… there’s something on the mind of this guy, clearly he’s gone to a lot of trouble to not only lot up a fairly common Latin saying, but he’s got a couple of Greek words in there… ok… I’m in, never know what I might learn
- stop and say, “hey! what the hell! Latin we’ve seen at this place…Greek, not so much! Hurry up! whats the hook!?”
- stop and feel, “this time, he’s gone too far. Sure obscurely famous sayings (well, famous saying done without transliteration) are pretty common in this blog… but 2 (nearly) dead languages in the Title, this time I doubt he will be able to get away with… and this much ‘set up’ and not even into the 10 Items…. I think I’ll stay around for a while, might be fun.”
Might be fun, indeed!
This is the TToT Post that we participate each week and I’ll get right to it. (Be interesting if, given the intro to this Post, that I have anything left to write! (which reminds me a an ‘adult joke’ that involves a young bull and an old bull standing on a hill, looking down at the herd of cows… it’s ‘cute funny’, and clever and such, but it is also a (false) argument favoring the clarklike view over the scottian worldview)… seeing how we’re into this fairly odd frame of mind, lets make this joke Item 1
1) a young bull and an old bull are standing on a hill overlooking a herd of cows. the young bull says, “hey! look at them all!! lets run down and get one” and the old bull replies, “no, lets walk down and get them all”
2) since everything on, (a TToT List), should be ‘things that we are grateful for’* I will designate ‘the Wakefield Doctrine’ as the sub-gratitous item associated with #1
3) I might as well state the obvious, the Wakefield Doctrine, in it’s increasingly varied manifestations and expressions and application, is a constant Item on these Lists
4) (along with the Doctrine) I should also list Phyllis and Una and work, as constant items. This, the designation of ‘constant item’, is not intended to diminish their gratitudosity, rather it is meant as a short-hand to account for them, on weekends like this weekend, when the theme of my TToT is a little extra tenuous (If I could do a ‘set list’ like Christine and Dyanne and Kristi and Val (and a number of the others) do each and every week I would totally be in heaven. They not only ‘make sense’, but they provide a context (to a real person’s life) that adds to reading of (their) TToT list each week.
5) …and then, there are these lists. (I actually tried to tell a joke to a real person in the course of work this week past)… I was in a house and the Owner said, ‘and this light switch, I have no idea what it’s hooked up to’ and, naturally, I remembered a Steven Wright joke,
“I recently moved into a new apartment, and there was this switch on the wall that didn’t do anything…so anytime I had nothing to do, I’d just flick that switch up and down…up and down…up and down….Then one day I got a letter from a woman in Germany…it just said, “Cut it out.””
6) In answer to the question forming in the minds of some readers (I will not name names, zoe and Lizzi and Denise (and a number of others), I have no idea of how to tie these jokes together into a coherent theme… wait a minute…
7) of course I’m grateful to the other Readers who are encouraging a better understanding (and appreciation) of the nature and character of the Seven Guard Virgins. (we will not say anything risqué about how they spend their time, especially when there is an affront to spirit of the TToT, as some might interpret this here Post here, in answer to those who might be thinking, ‘you know, I have often wondered how the SGV deal with the shenanigans that some of these writers are…er writing” allow me to simply say, “college dorm…Thursday night…after last exam, but before having to leave for the semester). As a part of this Item I would thank:
- Cyndi Calhoun for letting us know that there were, in fact, Seven Guard Virgins
- zoe for taking on the rather challenging job of being the gate-keeper/judge/final arbiter on all who would appeal to the Seven in the form of a dance (of entreaty)
- Sarah for coming up with the rather cool sobriquet: SGV
- Lizzi for letting them stay at her house, when they’re in town ( ‘gwan with ye now, stop by the flat anytime… crumpets and tea and all’)
8) …things that help me (re)focus on my effort to complete the book project. (I’m grateful to Molly, a friend of the Doctrine from early in these pages, who reflected that: a reluctance to express a goal clearly, or to do so in a manner that is too self-effacing, is to work against one’s own interest. (well, that’s how I’m remembering it. I bet it was more direct and clear, when she said it.) In any event, I try to keep that insight in mind when I talk about the Wakefield Doctrine book (project).
9) oddly enough, I am taking encouragement from the increasing number of ads on TV and radio that I see, (or hear), for self-improvement programs. Always a staple of the back pages of print magazines, there’s this one, luminosity (that’s been on tv a while) and just this week I heard one about a similar product from the fine folks at rosetta stone ( motto: ‘look at how plain these people in our commercials are! don’t you admire us for thinking you’re all… well, plain!)
10) Alright the unifying theme to this week’s TToT!! (I want to express my gratitude to anyone who has made it this far. muy buena! Thank you!) it (has to be) this: the difference between clarks (who know the Doctrine) and clarks (who do not know the Doctrine) can be seen in which of the two ‘interpretations’ of the famous saying that I be using in my Post title: know thyself (with gratitude to wikipedia for the trail of information they always provide, I am choosing to believe that clarks start with the original use (the greek expression), but with the Doctrine are able to not only stop up to the more modern understanding of this phrase, but are able to move beyond it. That is to say, ‘know your place’ to ‘learn more’ to ‘know yourself’ to ‘accept yourself’ (yeah, I better cite the wikipedia reference here). Well, this has been an interesting early Saturday morning!
Join the Ten Things of Thankful Facebook Group
* the BoSR (aka SBoR) allows for items of hypo-gratitude, provided it (the Book, not the item) is cited in the same (or subsequent Post)
About clarkscottroger
Phew! The commercials are better than the TV shows, most of the time. Like the one with Jake from State Farm in his khakis – always good for a laugh. Sometimes I picture you with tweezers picking out words from under a microscope to put in your post. That’s good for a laugh, too. (Love ya) But those standard thankfuls we go without saying – spouse, house, food, etc. are always good as fill ins. And, by the way, did I miss the translations?
damn! you’re right (hidden in the wikipedia link) ‘know thyself’ (latin then the Greek even though the origin is commonly believed to be Greek)
hey! excellent FRIST (on the commentationing)
Number 5 made me laugh, and now I know I should expect a letter from Germany sometime. Seriously, what is it with houses and apparently useless light switches? I also have a gate on the side of my house that a locksmith told me has a remote buzzer somewhere–must be in the German house, because it’s not here (and it’s not the useless light switch–I’ve tried that).
Kristi
Love Steven Wright.. “went to a restaurant, sign in the window said, ‘Breakfast anytime’ so I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance”
No way, am I really first today? Hip Hip Hooray :)
Shoot I see I’m not first :( I still enjoyed reading your TToT though as always. Love the picture you used too. Puppies are always so cute, it’s a shame they grow at times.
That is Ola! She was our first dog… perfect dog that photo would be when she was probably less than a year, just about to go into ‘the lanky dog’ phase… she would grow so fast, there would be days when her tail touched the ground. She always looked pleased when I would compliment her on a day growing!
Nice list this week , Clark… as always though I thouroughly enjoy your listationing… and even your jokes although I suspect the word ” get ” in the frist one was originally something more colorful. Maybe I’m hallucinating again…
lol… that’s the chicken talking again
Now that old bull is definitely more experienced!
lol there is that
Commericals either instantly annoy the ever loving crap out of me. or I love them. There does not seem to be an inbetween. I do love the state farm commericals though.
I loved the light switch joke. Perfect and yes what is up with that.
…yeah… the one (of a very small number of commercials) is the geico commercial:
I do rather think that ‘know yourself’ is a work in progress. Added to which (what with not ever being able to step in the same river twice, perhaps contextually on the external, but also INTERNALLY, yaknow?) it might never be possible in any more than a fleeting sense – in the same way that life consists of a series of ‘nows’.
I LOVE when the 7GV come over. And…yeah, some of them are REALLY good at snuggling ;)
yeah, I (suspect) that I know what you mean… but (and I know I don’t have to tell you) scotts and roger do not get that/can not get that…(what’s useful to remember is that (for them) it’s not a lack of intellectual capacity that they don’t get what you’re implying, it’s simply that it does not exist in their worldviews…
It’s always important to be thankful of “the usuals”, because what (or where) would we be without the usuals. If we had to fight for food, water, clothing, shelter and/or our bare lives on a daily basis, would we have time to muse over the Doctrine or write about it online? I don’t think so… So let’s be thankful of the small things we oftentimes take for granted or don’t even see in our day-to-day life.
you know, (for whatever reason) I occasionally think about those who lived in the past…the way past, like 1800’s and earlier… their interior environments must have been so very different… still the same human drives (still clarks and scotts and rogers) but the availability of non-focused on practical matters time had to have been so much less.
I’m actually wrestling with something akin to what you suggest…finding the time to apply to doing more with the Doctrine…more than Post writing, that, frankly is simple and fun but not as substantive as I feel I should be with the effort that I’m devoting to this thing…
good reminder… the basics are the starting point and though easy to overlook, are totally essential
I am not going to stop flipping the switch until that lady in Germany tells me how to turn on my ceiling fan without using the remote.
I totally do not get the joke in #1.
… well, know that I look at it, it’s not so much a joke as in ‘a man walks into a…’ or “”In Vegas, I got into a long argument with the man at the roulette wheel over what I considered to be an odd number.” (Steven Wright, of course)… it’s more of a gender-specific life lesson, ya know?
Love the light switch joke! My kind of humor.
the guy’s amazing
I’m new to the whole TToT thing and your post shows me how much of a variety there is in the ability to be grateful. But I do believe in the power of gratitude AND humor so I enjoyed your post and reflection on how we each interpret the our world. And while I STRONGLY support the importance of “knowing thyself” I’m still just tying to figure out what in the heck you mean by “the doctrine.”
Kathy
First off, ‘Welcome to the TToT’ it is a very… remarkable place in world where remarkable tends to be routine… a gratitude-list themed bloghop, there is something special going on here, the community, the spirit of the sharing…very cool.
‘the Doctrine, aka the Wakefield Doctrine is a fun and very useful approach to understanding the behavior of the people in our lives (and understanding our own behavior). all people experience the world from one of three perspectives (as Outsider’s/clarks or Predators/scotts or Herd Members/rogers) and if we correctly infer how the other person is ‘relating themselves to the world around them’, then we are in a position to better understand their behavior. It (the Doctrine) is fun and useful and affords us way more insight into a persons world than we should be capable of…
any questions not only are welcome, they are appreciated, as I am in the process of organizing the information (about the Wakefield Doctrine) with a new Reader in mind.
My “return” to blogland is off to a pleasant start! Enjoyed today’s post and everyone’s comments.
Needless to say as a clark, I have always loved Steven Wright’s jokes lol
May I join in with everyone – it is most important to remember and be thankful for the “basics”. For that which forms the foundation of our lives.
Here! Here! Long live the SGV!
I’m kinda with Dyanne on the joke in #1. I was thinking it had to do with the exuberance of youth – if the young bull went charging he would cause the entire herd to stampede. The old bull knows better. But, geez. That is so not funny LOL
P.S. #8. Good point. Why don’t I remember Molly talking about that?!
damn! so it is a gender issue!*
yeah.. the basic are so…. basic!
yeah, I actually remember what point of the Drive she made this point (no! seriously! it was as I was passing Old Mountain Field (on the right) and driving past the library at the Guild) I think I’ll go ask her at the FB
* trust me when I say, and I am Mr. Y Chrome and my name is on the Social Register, neither young scottian bull nor old clarklike bull were concerned with the emotional condition or social disruption of the herd resulting from the exuberance of youth
Thank you, Denise, for admitting you didn’t get #1 either!
I didn’t get it either…so I am adding a guest thankful here that I am not the only one who didn’t understand.
I’m still chuckling over your interpretation of Lizzi entertaining the SGV. Have a great week, Clark!
…a combination of Mary Poppins, Laura Croft and Helen Bonham Carter (in Sweeney Todd, not Alice in Wonderland)?
I have to say that I did enjoy #5 immensely. It reminded me of something I saw on television a bit back but I can’t quite remember what it was…oh well! I think being thankful for the constants is a very good thing. I think I don’t do that enough. As for commercials….ick. I have to admit that one of my favorites is the ‘Jake from State Farm’ ad. My son’s name is Jake and it has given me a new little something to aggravate him with! I will tell you this, I haven’t seen on in some time but those Old Spice commercials they were airing for a while were nothing short of disturbing. Someone needed to be fired!
…which ones? (now I’m intrigued…. will have to youtube Old Spice commercials, but the problem lies in what manifests as disturbing for me (in the worldview of a clark)* be right back
* the ‘everyone does everything at one time or another Rule’ maintains that ‘disturbing’ (in the context of a commercial, or any other context) is/can be distinctly different for a those in the three worldviews… this, in fact, is a form of ‘proof’ of the personal nature of reality
ok… I found this one, but it’s funny not disturbing (this surely isn’t the one)
I’ve already admitted I don’t get the joke in #1. I did, however, fall on the floor at #5. I love Steven Wright – exactly the way my mind works. I also love the State Farm commercials…My favorite part: “She sounds hideous.” “Well, yeah, she’s a guy, so…” Cracks me up every time.
Allow me to make a nod to complete juvenile humor and reference the KMart pants commercial…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I03UmJbK0lA
OK, maybe my comment wasn’t eaten…just delete the other one.
I don’t believe I’ve ever used the word sobriquet. I must work it in somewhere.
…with chocolate sauce and toppings!!