Month: December 2014 | the Wakefield Doctrine - Part 3 Month: December 2014 | the Wakefield Doctrine - Part 3

Qucik response Monday! -the Wakefield Doctrine- (‘yeah, I do start every day with the Wakefield Doctrine on my mind’)

December 15, 2014 By

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

Drexel (who, fortunate human, Kristi, is part of pack with)

Drexel 

Two purposes for today’s brief Post:

  1. to follow-up on an Item in  Saturday’s Post that elicited several very good Comments
  2. to see if writing a Post, (with a certain deliberate intent) can serve as a way to focus my outlook on the current day
  3. because it’s fun and if I’m ever going to learn to do this writing thing as good as them folks I read, I guess I better practice, right?

The Item:

as a clark, I find that when I’m walking to the mailbox in the rain without a coat or in December without shoes, it helps me realize how important it is to appreciate what is. That I am not in a hospital bed, or in a wheel chair or in the house because I am not able to leave…. I find that I ‘enjoy’ the harsh feelings of the 30 degree morning in part when I can know that it is a very real possibility that someday I will be in a place where I look back on (these days) and wish to anything that I might again have the opportunity to do something as silly as walk to the mailbox without shoes or a coat in December.

The Comment:

Knowing cold does make one appreciate warm more. Maybe I need to walk to the mailbox in bare feet so I can appreciate the heat of the sidewalk in summer time?  (Kristi)

It is an interesting way to remain grateful for what you do have and an interesting way to create memories to look back on. That walking in the cold to the mailbox. Maybe a little masochistic .  (Fangboner)

It may seem odd for me to say that I agree with the first and (feel) the need to explain as to the second Comment.

This exercise (the walking, not the writing) is about leverage. In the world(view) of a clark there is a form of disconnect between the rational and the emotional. Not an absence of emotions and not a control of the rational. Both are quite there, simply not integrated….  wait, that’s getting too  er  clarklike.
Try this:  clarks think, scotts act and rogers feel.  yeah! that’s better.
The world that I woke up to this morning is a world in which the rational is the medium of expression for me. While for, say Kristi, the world is, among other things, a world in which emotions are the medium (and, possibly the message). Fine. Both equal, not being compared as which is better, they just are that way.

You know that thing about how there is one predominant worldview and we still have ‘the other two’ within? This is what the barefoot thing is really about. I know that I ‘live in my head’. I know that while that is the way it is, it is not necessarily the best way to live. So, while I might know this, I ask myself how do I alter it?  no, learning more about how to live is not the answer!  I’m already learning the shit out of things.  Anyone? Dyanne?  ‘Stop thinking and just live!!!’  yes, that is one answer.   Kristi  in her Comment actually gives us the answer, in her choice of words.  no, not the ‘knowing’ part. the ‘appreciating’ part. the emotional aspect of the experience.

(For a clark) to do what we’re talking about, requires emotional leverage. To find a way to generate feelings(emotions) in concert with knowing something.
I get that I should appreciate the day I have today. I understand that I should not act like I’m immortal today*. I know that the littlest thing I do and say and encounter and share today, may very well be a thing of priceless value to me someday. I know that there will come a time, when I’m on my deathbed and I (may) have a moment to reflect on my life. A life spent inside my head is not a bad thing, but it is not as good as a life spent thinking and acting and feeling.

ya know?

Thanks to Kristi and Fangboner and the others what Commented at the Doctrine this weekend.

 

* a reference to something that Castanada had his character don Juan Mateus say about living in the present and making decisions not as if I would get a chance to do it again, rather to act as if it were my only chance to act.  At least that’s how I read it.

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TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine- (“You know, sometimes all you can do is start typing…“)

December 13, 2014 By

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

20141014_072206_resized

1)  grateful for being able to (continue) my morning walks to the mail box. We always walk up to the mailbox in the morning before we Phyllis and I leave for work and Una takes up her daytime position on the couch in the lower level family room.

2) I am grateful for the fun of having a dog in the family. Not an un-common characteristic in dogs, Una has a different ‘returning home’ greeting for each of us.  On most weekdays, I’m able to get home to give Una her lunch. The fun part, (for me, and maybe her), is that I start talking before I open the door to the lower level, usually something topical like,  “…oh man! look at the time!! a certain dog must be famished… (step into the Family Room) oh! I didn’t see you on the couch!!”  (I laugh and Una, I assume, gets a kick out of it).

3) that morning walk in Grat Item #1? just in case anyone is thinking, ‘Well! that’s a relief! A walk with the family to the mailbox in the morning, how normal can that clark guy get!’  I am grateful that I have been able do this exactly as I did in the summer, no shoes or coat. (This is a clark thing. It should have little or no appeal to a scott because scotts, by worldview definition, tend to live pretty much all in the here and now . rogers… they would tend to see my little morning exercise as either a) a funny quirk or 2) an annoying affectation.)
Having said that, as a clark, I find that when I’m walking to the mailbox in the rain without a coat or in December without shoes, it helps me realize how important it is to appreciate what is. That I am not in a hospital bed, or in a wheel chair or in the house because I am not able to leave…. I find that I ‘enjoy’ the harsh feelings of the 30 degree morning in part when I can know that it is a very real possibility that someday I will be in a place where I look back on (these days) and wish to anything that I might again have the opportunity to do something as silly as walk to the mailbox without shoes or a coat in December.

4) Phyllis obviously,  because she doesn’t refuse to go out to the mailbox because of that guy that’s insisting on making a simple family activity into some kind of ‘inside-your-head-metaphysical-adventure’

5) …grateful to the blogosphere for the opportunity to get to know Cynthia (tbfka Cyndi)…She writes the blog Pictimilitude which, among a whole bunch of things, was the sponsor for the short-lived ‘Wakefield Doctrine 30 Minute Hour’ on blogtalk radio!  In any event, she is a pretty amazing person and she is graduating from Graduate School today!     “Así se hace !!! Cyndacito!!

6) Vidchat… despite my best effort to the contrary, a Friday Night vidchat is fun and enlightening… last night with zoe and Lizzi   (hey!! Joy   sent FB invite  but the vidchat app was acting up  though, I heard that Kristi was also planning on stopping by, but I got elderly around 9:00 pm and had to go fall down in the room with softened floors. perhaps next Friday!)

7)  I’ve been listening to this one song for the better part of the week, so I might as well invoke SBoR 87.3.1 [sec. 3]  and post it as Grat Item #8.  (an example of a cover being superior to the original)

8)  

9)  The Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules)…. (motto: ‘well, don’t feel embarrassed, spend the time and take the chance finding a Rule that allows you to do what you want/need to/feel-you-must and go ahead and cite it!‘ )  The SBoR’s has been referred to as the ‘...rather nice tool that those odd folks who participate in the Ten Things of Thankful bloghop apparently have, it clearly makes a fairly common bloghop theme, i.e. gratitude lists, such a delightful exercise.‘

10) 1.3   y’all

Ten Things of Thankful

 

 Your hosts

Join the Ten Things of Thankful Facebook Group


* what, no Footnotes?

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Thursday Quick Post -the Wakefield Doctrine- “…you’re deliberately mis-understanding me!”

December 11, 2014 By

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

The topic today is: communication between the worldviews.

Scenario: a clark goes to his Manager (who is a roger) for help. the clark has looked at the problem from every conceivable angle, but nothing he can think offers a credible solution to the problem. the clark is reluctant to ask for help because…well, because he’s a clark. (he should have this one! he’s been doing this work a lot longer than the roger and besides…he should be able to do this one!). the clark decides, “screw it. this is about providing service to the client. I can’t let pride get in the way, I’ll let the Manager have a shot, maybe there is something I’ve over-looked” and off he goes to talk to the roger about the problem. the clark goes to the Manager’s office and says, “hey, I need your help on something, is there a time we can sit down for a minute?”* So the clark describes the situation, the problem that is proving to be so intractable. The roger asks questions, even though the clark is presenting the information as a synopsis. (It becomes clear from the clark’s responses to the roger’s questions, that he, (the clark), has covered all the bases, taken all reasonable approaches to solving the problem. Eventually, the roger runs out of questions, one sentence sooner that the clark runs out of information (about the problem).)
the clark completes his presentation and the roger says, “I’ll be glad to help, let me give it some thought and I’ll get back to you later today.”

Later that day, the roger comes into the clark’s office and says, “I’ve spent time with the problem you’re having and think I can help.” the clark responds, “thats great! what have you got?”  and the roger hands him a typed list and says, “Here’s a list of things that I think, if you go through and do each item, the problem will be solved.”

the clark gets angry and the roger feels disappointed (therefore, angry).

The above is an example of how communication, despite the good intentions of both participants, can result in un-necessarily negative responses.

What happened:

  • the clark ‘made the sacrifice’, in the interest of his client, and asked for help (this comes at a very high price, a clark expects to know how to do the job he believes he knows how to do)
  • the roger has welcomed someone into his herd (this is metaphorical, of course. if you still are shaking your head and wondering what the hell this is all about…the photo was so enticing…. you might want to ask a question or two or maybe go to the ‘About’ page)
  • the clark shares all that he knows about the problem and, by doing so, exposes himself to being identified as being insufficiently informed
  • the roger, excited about the prospect of a new Herd Member (the bigger the herd, the more valuable he is), commits to giving it his all, which, for a roger, is best offered in the the form of a List
  • the clark, seeing a List being offered as the solution to his problem, becomes ‘angry’ (which is to say, ‘pissed-off, but-to-all-the-world-seems-for-some-reason-to-be-getting-very-formal-and-polite’)
  • the roger seeing the clark in front of him go from being enthusiastic and talkative (at the first meeting) to becoming visibly-and-painfully polite, begins to wonder if he didn’t mis-judge this person’s request for help
  • both leave the second meeting un-happy.

Why?
Because in the world of the Outsider, information is everything and, (for a clark) to admit to an insufficiency of information is to be vulnerable/open to the world. In the world of the Outsider, a List manifests is a checklist, it is a standard of comparison. A challenge. A negative when given to another… ‘hey, in case you missed something, here is an itemization of what you should have known to do.’
Because in the world of a Herd Member, a request for help is a request to be invited into the world (of that roger). In the world of a Herd Member, a List manifests as a ….a  celebration and invitation, an itemization of the thing that is being shared!

(…to be cont’d)

 

 

* (from ‘the Wakefield Doctrine On the Job’ “… when you have a rogerian superior and you need to talk to them or ask them a question, (even a simple, short-answer question), always try to avoid asking the question ‘out of the blue’ and especially avoid asking the question when there are more people in the room than you and the roger. Always ask if they (the roger) have some time for a question, making it obvious that you are not requiring answer ‘right here, right now’

 

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Palimpsest Wednesday! -the Wakefield Doctrine- (yes, clark found a word that he liked, so of course he uses it non-appropriately!)

December 10, 2014 By

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

(why, yes! you do see a clark and a scott and a roger)

(why, yes! you do see a clark and a scott and a roger)

Hey, I have one of those ‘related Posts’ widgets and though there are times when it suggests Posts on the basis of being in English*, today I spotted one that I had forgotten I had written!** So, naturally I went and read it… well, yes, I skimmed it, but only to decide if I really liked it and then I went back and read it word for word… ok, most of it.
Funny about synchronicity (or just hanging out with a small group of people with similar interests,  that’s kinda synchronistic, right?) (As old Carl Jung was reputed to say, “Synchronizität? wie ‘ Bout, die Aufmerksamkeit auf was herum vor sich geht, und genug mit der Metaphysik bereitsstarten!“***

(from July 31 2011)

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

Two topics today: clarks and scotts

clarks: outsiders, mis-fits, creative, intellectual, rational, aloof, tireless workers, clarks are capable of imagining and creating anything and bringing it to others to experience

scotts: action-oriented, vivacious, instinct-driven, impulsive, natural leaders, full of energy and life, scotts will cause others to believe that actions can speak words

Today’s Post: The tale of The Rabbit in the Newspaper Box ( a story of a scott stepping into the world of a clark).

One un-seasonably mild March day, DownSpring glenn and I were driving along RI Route 1 in search of a golf course. Most of the better golf courses in the area were not fooled by the warm-spell and remained Closed for the Winter ( “See You Next Spring!”…spelled out in movable black letters below the Welcome Sign).  We were determined to find an open course, so we drove from the middle of Rhode Island to it’s southern end, searching for an open golf course.  By late morning we had still not found what we were looking for, not even a driving range was open.
Finally, admitting defeat we headed home, which required us to head up Route 1 North. The highway in this part of Rhode Island runs along the coastline. Far enough away from the water  to be a ‘real highway’ (not one of those scenic roads that force you to stop at every intersection with a Antique Shoppe, Seafood Restaurant  and Seven Eleven), yet close enough so that you could see the ocean as you drove up the highway. Route 1 in this part of the state was a ‘divided highway’; two lanes North with a grassy median divider of about 20′ and two lanes South. The median had turn-arounds every half mile or so, allowing a person to change their mind and head in the opposite direction, without wasting a lot of time.

As we drove north, we passed one of those coin-operated newspaper boxes, chained to a telephone pole. The box was bright yellow, about 4′ by 3′ with a Plexiglas window making up the top half, in order to display the Current Edition (of the Providence Journal). This design is intended  to catch the Summer Tourists in a hurry to get to the Cape, “Honey! There’s a newspaper stand, pull over and I’ll buy us a copy“).
The weather (as I said) was un-seasonably mild, light fluffy clouds and it was about 11:30 on a Saturday morning. We were driving at 55mph as we passed the newspaper box. (As I drove), from the corner of my eye, I saw a black and white rabbit sitting inside the newspaper box (where the newspapers were supposed to be). I am a clark, so while interesting, I did not feel an urgent need to point out to glenn this odd sighting. However,  a mili-second after we passed, I got the feeling that there was something wrong with my passenger, glenn. ( The fun of hanging out with a scott, is that there is always a ‘give n take’ of conversation, ideas, observations…you can feel the energy radiating from these people, and (being a clark), I am always aware of their mental/emotional state of mind.)
As we passed I felt a quiet coming from the passenger side of the car. (Sort of a ‘mental gasp’). So I said, ‘hey glenn, did I see a rabbit in that newspaper box we just passed?’ “What the fuck!?” was glenn’s response.
There was a turn-around in the median about 200 yards up the road from us. I sped up and in about 2 minutes I had the car headed in the opposite direction. For some reason, neither of us looked over at the newspaper box as we drove back down the highway in order to get beyond where we saw the rabbit. Another median turn-around and we were driving north again and the newspaper box (with or without a rabbit) was about 100 yards ahead. There was quiet in the car.  I did not feel the need to drive any slower than I did the first time we drove past the box.
Again!  As we drove past the Providence Journal newspaper box, in a curious silence, we both looked to our right and once again, a black and white rabbit!  Sitting in the box where the newpapers were supposed to be!

I laughed and sped up. glenn shouted something. We reached the next median turn-around and went back the same route. The third time: rabbit was gone, newspapers were where they were supposed to be. ( Should note that the traffic was rather light, we did not drive out-of-sight of the location of the newspaper box in the course of doing our turn-arounds. There was no time for someone to stop, get the rabbit out of the box and drive off, before we got back from our turn).

It was an interesting drive home. To glenn’s credit, he did not do what most scotts (or rogers, for that matter) would have done, i.e. “nah, must of been a reflection” or “no, ain’t no rabbits in a newspaper box, thats crazy“. We both did what clarks instinctively know to do in a situation like this, be quiet and let the memory settle into the mind and …laugh.

The story above is true. The names are not changed to protect the innocent (hey, we’re talking about a scott and a clark, there ain’t no innocents there!)

The point of today’s little story, if there is to be one, is that we all share the capacity to experience the world as each other would.
To put it in terms that a roger and a scott can understand: no matter which of the three personality types we are, we never lose the capacity to see and experience the world as the remaining two types. All of us are merely predominately a clark or a scott or a roger.  That’s why, when you first read about the Wakefield Doctrine, most people say, “hey this is a great system!  But I must be a fluke, ’cause even though I know I must be a roger there are time when I am a scott!”  This is as it must be, you are also a clark or a scott.  But your world is one of a roger (in this example).
The reason it is important to understand this is, that while you may be able to identify the other two personality types within yourself, the world you are living in is that of (your) predominant type.

That is the point of the Tale of the Rabbit in the Newspaper Box.
The experience was for glenn. Even though glenn has a very high degree of flexible intelligence (the ability to imagine other realities), he is still a scott and in the world of a scott, rabbits do not sit in newspaper boxes. It shows that when you are at wit’s end, and you know that you have tried everything you can imagine,  all you have to do is stop trying.
glenn stopped trying to make sense of the situation (as a scott must) and simply enjoyed the very strange occurrence (as a clark does).

 

* which, given the early efforts to capture the attention of Readers, was not always a safe bet, here at the Wakefield Doctrine

** still not earthshaking, as I have a disturbing tendency to forget what I wrote last week… on the plus side, I get the fun of reading as ‘a Reader’  (the advantage is that I avoid the Ed Sullivan effect when I find a Post where ambition grossly exceeded ability, plus when I hit a ‘good one’… I sneak in a moment of feeling good about myself…(don’t tell anyone!)*****

*** “synchronicity? how ’bout you start paying attention to what’s going on around and enough with the metaphysics already!”  

**** my secret is safe here, no body reads footnotes!

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clarks -the Wakefield Doctrine- “…and the world out there.”

December 9, 2014 By

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

fence1

you know the weirdest thing about clarks? It’s not the funny little half-smile you see on their faces when they’re in the group you’re addressing, (and you know, for certain, that you have not said anything funny), it’s not the odd way that the female contingency  (mostly the women,  but not exclusively), choose to dress…  like a Fire Engine, bristling with emergency rescue equipment….painted a soft blue, it’s not even the way that clarks will be so quiet, even…no! especially when things all around are getting crazy…crazier …craziest, they seem to be apart, almost as if the (current) desperate situation that has the rogers fretting and the scotts shouting, causes them to grow… more, more of whatever it is they are…

…no, the weirdest thing about clarks is their morning time. (This is not necessarily literal. It is, necessarily, the time between demands and performance. The offstage moment, as the house lights go down). That is the strangest part of ‘the experience of the world from the personal-reality-perspective of clarks (the Outsiders).
It (seems) to be a time of choice, it is (often) a time of desperate hope, it is (always) a time of incredible … distance.
This distance is not as common and simple as physical distance (although, have you ever been in a crowd of people, say an elevator, where your attention is dominated by, say the floor you are intending to travel to, and then you notice that there is a person standing very-next-to-you? you wonder briefly how you could have not noticed them), and (this distance) is not an emotional gulf between people (although, there are times when you are prepared to accept that the person you care so much about  just is not invested in the relationship, and then you see an act of selflessness that takes your breath away), no, the distance is none of these.

the distance (for a clark) is the amazing and awful, frustrating and inspiring distance between the clark and themselves. They think (and think about thinking), they act (and appreciate/regret it as it occurs), they feel and wonder if it’s real.

Tuesday.

(jeez  good thing it’s dark and pouring rain outside!)

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