Month: January 2015 | the Wakefield Doctrine Month: January 2015 | the Wakefield Doctrine

**** -the Wakefield Doctrine- “***, BoSR/SBoR,***”

January 31, 2015 By

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

20150127_134225_resized_1

This is our weekend bloghop, the Ten Things of Thankful, started by Lizzi Rogers and sustained by 8 remarkable hostinae. Each week, bloggers are invited to share the parts of their lives that engender a feeling of thankfulness and gratitude. As a bloghop, this, the TToT has a certain…attitude that stands out in, (an area), of the blogosphere that is, how to put this elegantly,  lousy with good writers, clever ideas and excellent presentation. What quality this, bloghop-that-Lizzi-created, has is ‘community’. (I know, I know, most of you are groaning and saying to each other, “‘com mune it tee’ that’s for girls!! we’re outa here” I will say,  ‘well maybe  but we have a Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules)’.   I thought that might change your minds! More about that later. So, welcome to the TToT (or, to be more accurate, welcome to one aspect of the TToT (‘one aspect of the TToT’ motto: ‘you say you want to, like, turn off the censor and write whatever you please and still have people read your Post? You’ve come to the right place‘)

Ten things…how hard can it be? This week you’ll be enjoying reading how people present their list of ‘Ten Things’, in ways as varied as the writers who create them.

1) Una. She enjoys the snow, as the photo above makes abundantly clear.

2) I am grateful for the quirk in my personality that has created in me a pleasure center built upon the act of shoveling. (no! I’m totally serious! We all know people who derive pleasure from certain less than common activities, (…besides that),  hobbies like wood carving and crochetteting or maybe arranging colored sand in intricate patterns. For such people, it a source of pleasure and satisfaction that is not derived from the direct product of their efforts, in fact, I would offer that there is some innocent life experience in their childhood years that, combined with available activities and encouragement become …fun.  Well, I get that from using a shovel. Could be digging a hole in summer or shoveling the lawn in winter. (as a 13 yo, I once shoveled the snow off the backyard at my house… the entire backyard. My parents were upset.) In any event, I enjoy shoveling snow, and this is good because Una is a fairly small dog (50 lbs) and the snow this week at least 24″ worth… and so I dug some paths out into the yard so she could get to a section where there are trees and the snow was not so deep.)

3) I am hypo-grateful for the fact of the snow, but I temper this with an appreciation of the fact that it’s the end of January. In years past, we’ve had storms like the one this week in December! That makes for a long winter.( added bonus Grat: we live in a fairly rural area. It’s very windy this morning, as I write this. Not only can I hear the wind howl, but I can hear it howling in the distance… you know, you hear the growing sound of the gust as it starts in the far distance, it grows, but then (this is the cool part this morning), then the gust goes after someone else…. not me! The sound grows (as the gust approaches) but sometimes you can hear it veering off before it hits the trees around your house. See? did you hear that?  like a train, very close but none of the trees surround our house (and they’re Pine Tress so they make a fairly cool sound when the wind blows, what with all the needles and such)… you know that the wind found someone else to mess with…)

4) Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) one of the features of this bloghop that makes it possible for people like me to participate, nay! be a co-hostmagnissamus of the bloghop* and participate every week with barely a hint of self-consciousness (which makes up for those horrible years spent at William Golding Junior High… trouble is, there’s no way…well, no legal way I can find some of my classmates and beat them up (or have them beat up). oh well.  The Book!  that’s what this Gratitude Item is about! Very Simple: we have a blog hop that asks participants to write a list of the 10 Things that they are grateful for…if for reasons beyond your control (yes, Christine,  like an over-active imagination encouraged by a totally stunted sense of decorum…) you are not able to produce a list of 10 Items, you may provide an alternate list. The catch is you must cite the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) and then everyone will be watching, so it’s not what I would call a ‘Get Out of Jail Free Card’

5) * BoSR(SBoR) chap 69 sec 14: anyone who uses a term like ‘nay!’ or ‘verily’ in an Item without resorting to a ‘lol’ to cover up for the essentially giggle-inducing phrase is entitled

6) (chap 60 sec 14.5) 2 free Items.

7) this weekend’s work will have to be listed as semi-hypo-grateful… not just the weather conditions, hell I spent several winters on the deck of a commercial fishing boat where the cold and the wind were such that the spray off the bow would turn into hail and sting like a bastard when it hit you in the face… no, it’s the stress of the work. Which, speaking only for myself, is pretty much all self-induced. Well, let me rephrase that, ‘the challenges of the work I do is the ostensible reason for stress, the unalterable fact of the matter is that I am responsible for allowing these reasons to be experienced as ‘stress’.  Fortunately for me, one of the tools at my disposal for dealing with this is, Item 8: ‘ the Wakefield Doctrine’

8) I am grateful this week for the Wakefield Doctrine, both as a tool for my understanding of myself as well as a way to enjoy the day and the people in it.

9) You might think I would’ve taken advantage of the the BoSR/SBoR to jump right to Secret Rule 1.3, but I’m grateful for the fact that I did not. Instead, I think I’ll pimp the movie that I saw a couple of weeks ago. ‘Predestination’… with Ethan Hawke a new release on video. You should rent it this weekend. It is family friendly, but I suspect a lot of people will not enjoy it. It’s arguably the best ‘time travel paradox’ movie I have ever seen. Those of you with children… not sure which of the kids are clarks?  try this movie out. (What? you want another movie to help identify the clarks in your family?  say no more! ‘Slacker’ by Richard Linklater  now, you put this movie on with a couch full of people and I guarantee that the scotts and the rogers will not last 5 minutes and the clarks will be sitting there mesmerized (with that laughsmile on their faces).

10) Even though there is still only rudimentary language developed to account for the benefit of identifying with other clarks, I am grateful for that simple and stupendous offshoot of this Wakefield Doctrine blog. That I can identify and identify with, other clarks is, simply, one of the top 5 significant events in my life (and yes, that is one of the three… jeez!)

* footnotes and such

 

 

Ten Things of Thankful

 

 Your hosts

Join the Ten Things of Thankful Facebook Group


Share
Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Friday -the Wakefield Doctrine- it’s a theory, it’s a personality type system, it’s fun

January 30, 2015 By

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

2005-05-24-post-prandial-pessimists

You know that today is Friday (Day of the Week motto: “what? don’t like my work? well then tell me to go home for the rest of the week, why doncha? yeah, I thought so…“). Consider Friday the zen-iest Day of the Work Week, no pressure because there is an end, not only to the Day, but the whole (Work) Week. Kinda gets you thinking, in a reflectionary way,…well, it does if you’re a clark ( or a post-coital scott….or a pre-prandial roger )

In any event, this has been a good and enjoyable week here at the Wakefield Doctrine. Good Questions, Comments and Discussions. I especially enjoyed the give and take on the Comment Threads… I found myself feeling like I did during the early years of writing this blog, seeing questions (that reminded me of how cool this here Doctrine can be) and writing answers (that let Readers know how fun the application of the principles of this personality theory can be). In fact, let me single out Val and Lisa for bringing up the 2 part question of ‘suppose a scott poses as a scott or a roger poses as a…’  (and) ‘all this is happening at the water cooler at work, with real people I know’. What was the most fun was being able to respond with, (my Reply, edited for the sake of length and a moment to reflect… the Wakefield Doctrine is, in fact, ‘an Open Book Exam’), the following:

water coolers and break rooms (aka a-modern-day Oasis’s in the desert….the-digital-watering holes in the jungle clearing…the-polar-bear-free ice floe in the polar oceans) are among the best of places to observe clarks, scotts and rogers. The reason they are there, (or at least one of the reasons they are), depends entirely on their predominant  worldview…

now, the ‘real’ people you work with and know quite well? Go ahead and stick their heads on the bodies of predators and Herd Members and Outsiders….you know, like leopards and lions, antelope and wildebeests, wombats and (I don’t know, some other odd marsupial)…. that is how we apply the Wakefield Doctrine when we’re in a practical mood!  lol… and the result is the Doctrine at it’s most useful and fun and totally self-regulating…

You might be asking, ‘what? use my imagination and picture people I know as animals as we all stand around the water cooler?!?! Is that what you’re suggesting??! What the hell kind of insightful and useful personalty-type system are you selling here?‘  Allow me one more ‘lol’… that is exactly what we are suggesting. But, wait! hear us out!!
One of the questions posed was ‘what if a scott posed as a roger or a roger posed as a clark or…’ a valid question. It is a good question, if for no other reason than the ‘answer’ provides an illustration of how self-correcting our little personality theory can be, meaning, without having to spend years studying this Doctrine, you can gain insights that are accurate and correct, even when there might be confusion as to a person’s dominant worldview! Now, lets get back to the water cooler at work, and our friends hanging out there.

Sure, among our friends and co-workers, we know some who are aggressive and (others) who prefer to follow the crowd etc… You also know what a lion/leopard/predator is like, how they behave in the wild. (The co-worker who you have pegged as a scott… how do they seem to be carrying it off? (you know, the ‘imagine them as animals at the water cooler, their faces/animal bodies’ exercise) I’ll wager that if they are not a scott… then, as you observe them as ‘the predator at the oasis’… you won’t be able to miss that it (this image) just doesn’t quite fit.  They don’t seem too…convincing (as king of the beasts). So, maybe you just need to put their face on a different animal, I don’t know… how about a howler monkey?

If you attempt this exercise, I will guarantee one thing: a) as of one of three types of animals, each person will totally nail the role, appear natural  and 2) you should try not to laugh too much, as you engage in our little experiment. I guarantee they will not be amused. Wait! I take that back!  (If they catch you doing this), the scotts will laugh along with you, the clarks will be impressed and, depending on your predominant world, might hope to become better friends and the rogers?… well, that will depend on your worldview entirely…. but that’s a whole Post in itself!

Thank you for the fun and insight, y’all

 

Share
Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: , , , ,

Twensday -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘…it was a clark and stormy night‘ day, day! and, kinda boring towards the end too!’

January 28, 2015 By

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

1920px-Ferdinand_Hodler_005

The last Comment/Reply to yesterday’s day-before-yesterday’s Post serves perfectly to start us off today,

“I’d totally be calling “shotgun.” ” ( Dyanne ‘Backsies‘  …scott )

“We knew that… (well, this is the Wakefield Doctrine!)”  ( clark…. clark )

now, before you think, ‘well he knows her’… (or) ‘she hasn’t really said anything other than where she would sit’… (or) ‘but your answer it doesn’t really tell us anything that we didn’t know!’

Fair enough.

Yesterday’s Post was concerned with, ‘what the Doctrine is’, today we will address the question of ‘what the Doctrine does’

What does the Wakefield Doctrine do? Is that what you want to know? well, is it?!  For starters it won’t: make your husband stop being so picky, (or) give you the power so you can simply change your child, (the one who has so much potential, but all he wants to do is read those books), to stop him  being so hard on himself when playing with the other kids (or) your friend, who you love dearly, but every time you go somewhere public, there’s a scene (not such an outrageous scene, at least not anymore, back when you were all young…wellll! it seemed that the minute you’d walk into the bar…she would somehow do something that made you three the center of attention and what you had hoped would be a nice evening with your two best friends would end up with you:  frantically waving down a cab/ telling her new friend’s buddy that you really aren’t interested and/or hitting someone on the head with a bottle)

so… you want to know what the Wakefield Doctrine can do?  Ok, rather than go into a long list of what it can’t do (which I seem to have already made a good start at), I’ll tell you the two most valuable things that things that using the Wakefield Doctrine skillfully, can allow you to do:

  1. you can know the other person better than they know themselves, with insights into the reasons for their behavior, knowledge that you have no right to know
  2. you can ‘see the world as the other person is experiencing it’
  3. (for a certain percentage of you out there), you can begin to build a ‘place to stand’  a place (within) that might just be above the emotional water line… a place that is not periodically washed away by the horrible price of being …what you believe you are

There! is that enough for you?

(Follow up on newest Doctrine blogroll member, Val’s scenario in Coments:

  • which of those three young ladies will be assigned photographer duties,
  • which will be ‘the self’ in most of the evening selfless and…. here’s a really tough one!  of the three…
  • which of the three will ‘mis-remember’ how the evening went…at least when telling ‘the Evening’s Tale’ back at the office the next day?*

 

* no, sorry Lizzi and zoe are prohibited from answering the bonus Question… lets let the newer Readers have some of the fun of answering the questions (especially, the fun of that dawning realization and you start to answer one way and then it occurs to you…. ‘wait! she’s just like….”)

Share
Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: , , , ,

-the Wakefield Doctrine- “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a personality theory”

January 26, 2015 By

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

…we did mention that the Doctrine is anecdotal, right? above? …anecdotal football, if ever I saw one

…we did mention that the Doctrine is anecdotal, right? above? …anecdotal football, if ever I saw one

(Today’s Post’s subtitle is, of course, (the) paraphrased tagline of a famous speech by football coach, Vince Lombardi.  Given that we’re at the height of football season (Height of Football Season motto: “Open enrollment for the Herd!! you’re all rogers…. provided you’re willing to paint your face and tolerate near-criminal activity in the name of cheering for the home team!!!!” ).

Over the course of the weekend there were enough Reader remarks, comments, asides and vague innuendae about the understandability of the Wakefield Doctrine, that I thought, ‘What the hell, lets see if I can’t give a ‘This is the Wakefield Doctrine speech’.

Rather than go back and mine one of the 1268 Posts that, when all is said and done, are each an attempt to explain the Wakefield Doctrine in a manner that allows a New Reader to read, understand, apply and enjoy this here personality theory here, I thought… hey! it’s Sunday evening. Lets write a ‘new’ explanation of the Wakefield Doctrine!

the Wakefield Doctrine is a way of looking at the people in our lives, that can, when properly applied, lead to understanding them in ‘additional ways’. By ‘additional ways’, we mean… ‘what am I doing that is an integral aspect in how they are acting?

(…. “Ladies and Gentleman this is ‘an inflated leather spindle torus'”  sorry, lol… I was trying to write ‘the speech’, but thought about the ‘setup’…post game speech… locker room… various states of dress…demographics of the current readership…. me standing on a bench (in that locker room)….lol)  wait! wait!  let me try again.

The Comments that got me on this theme (the basics of the Wakefield Doctrine, not the locker room) were:

  • “I’m still learning this clark roger secret rule thing… yes one day I will…”  (Kimberly at ‘…something something’ ) 
  • ” And remember, I am embracing my Clark-like self this week.” (Val of ‘Virtual Vineyard’)
  • “…thankful for your WD info and thankful to be understanding it more and better” (Lisa over at Meaning of Me’) 

Let me try to be more reality tv show about this explanation. Kimberly (who, of the three, is the one I would bet would ‘call shotgun!’ first,  is in the front seat and Val and Lisa are in the back  and we’re driving through Wakefield on a Saturday night.**)

After driving past the Guild and heading into Wakefield proper, I look in the rear view mirror and begin:

the Wakefield Doctrine is a perspective. It’s a way to see the world, it’s a way to understand the behavior of the people in our lives. It’s not an Answer, it’s a Question. And…. (hey!! Val!! please!!! no leaning out the window and shouting at the people in the CVS parking lot!!! come on! they’re on serious, old person/sick person business!!  thank you. )  the Question is:  ‘how does my spouse/the girl at the 7/11,  / the Teacher who is shaping my 7 year old’s life/ the people I read about in the news… how do they appear to be ‘relating themselves to the world around them’?’  The Wakefield Doctrine proposes that we all live in a personal reality (aka worldview) that is characterized as (one) of the following:

  1. live as ‘the Outsider’ (clarks) always apart from, different, trying to understand what it is they don’t understand, trapped by the belief that it is about knowledge
  2. the world of the Predator (scotts) seemingly confident (always looking for threats and opportunity), active and impulsive  running into doors as often as gallantly opening them, protective and paranoid
  3. the life of the Herd Member (rogers)  self-assured, as the world of the roger is one that is quantifiable/(and limited), knowable/(and ignorable) ordered and simple… searching only for ‘the Right Way’/ missing the enjoyment of the un-expected and strange

What the Wakefield Doctrine refers to as ‘personality types’ is simply the skill set we develop in order to successfully cope with the reality that we find ourselves growing up in and living our lives in … (‘no Kimberly… we can’t stop for donuts…. we have to drive to Galilee next…. yes,  Lisa  I will try to walk on the water… very funny’). So what we are saying with the Doctrine is this: understand the three worldviews, infer how the other person is relating themselves to the world around them and they will do the rest.  No, I’m serious! Ask anyone! Once you start to see the clarks, scotts and rogers in your life, they will ‘act the part’ to a degree that is sometimes a little scary. But fun..  The goal of all of this is: to try to see the world as the other person is experiencing it.

It takes imagination. It takes the kind of curious mind that not only is capable of, but enjoys imagining that a person is a Predator (figuratively) or creative perfectionist or… or even the person who is ever the Outsider, but always manages to be a part of…secretly, of course!

…ok everyone out! we’re back.

 

** which, by the way, is not a symbol, metaphor, allusion or made up place… there is a Wakefield, Rhode Island and I do drive through it on virtually every Saturday Night***

*** doing the Wakefield Doctrine Saturday Night Drive Call-in….

Share
Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: , , ,

TToT(pre-Saturdee) -the Wakefield Doctrine- (the weekend, already?)

January 24, 2015 By

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

1) Today started very early. I am, apparently,  a ‘morning person’. Given a choice of getting up extra early or staying up extra late, I’ll pick the former every time. So, today,while not particularly unusual in (my) getting-up-time, saw me out on the road extra early… as the photos indicate, about sunrise.

20150123_071440_resized …20150123_071437_resized…20150123_071433_resized…I was driving –>  on my way in to my office. Good to have technology to be able to grab the photos as I drove.

2) (I’m really determined to write a normal, orderly TToT Post this week. Not that anyone is suggesting or otherwise attempting to compel me to do so, it’s just that for me it’s difficult and therefore accomplishing it would be a good thing. I am grateful to Christine and Dyanne and the other co-hostinae who are skilled grat list writers, for their encouragement and, in their own contributions here each week, demonstrate of ‘how to write a grat list… here and now style’!*

3) Phyllis had a birthday recently and, as a present, I thought….’hey! real people send flowers to loved ones at their place of work as a surprise‘. The pleasure of such gestures is, by all appearances, enhanced by the public-ness of the gift receiving process. I suspect that this is a X Chrome thing, as it seems to be all about… the ‘awwws’  Of course, I am a clark, which would have become totally obvious had you the opportunity to observe, as I went online to the FDA online florist site (FDA online florist site motto: ‘ You’re at home in your bathroom with a cup of coffee… you can afford to be extra romantic!‘). But, flowers are not really something I understand (other than their ‘aww’ producing qualities), so I thought, ‘a plant for Phyllis’s office would be nice… bonsai plants are pretty cool and slow-motion zen an shit… get her something Mr Miyagi would approve of!‘ and so I did and I am grateful for the opportunity to do so.

4) I am grateful for the new plant I have on my desk at home:

20150123_185651_resized… if it weren’t for the fact that only girls and rogers name things like cars, and plants and such, I’d call it ‘george’ (or ‘ジョージ’)… but being neither, I guess I’ll just take a photo and maybe come back to it from time to time on these weekend posts. It’s not that Phyllis did not enjoy my gift, it’s just that she’s not a plant person… so we’ll see.

5) (I’m actually still within the last 7 day period with my post here!) Allow me to go a little generic, and say I’m very grateful for the non-snow infested winter season that we’ve been experiencing here in southern New England. Granted it’s been cold, but, (the lack of snow), is worth at least 10 degrees of outdoor temperature.  and…and! it’s like still light at 5:30!!

6) I spend a significant amount of time in my car everyday. The lack of snow has made this much more enjoyable. I’m more inclined to try and take photos as I drive:

20150120_103641_resized is it just me, or does this cloud formation seem a little odd. (That special kind of ‘everyday unusual’… like walking into kitchen and seeing a clean plate on the top of the stove, obviously the result of a major distraction…. nevertheless it can be a bit …un-nerving, teetering between funny and creepy… these clouds? They could go either way.)

7) As always, I’ll cite the Wakefield Doctrine as one of the most significant aspects of my life. No, seriously… were it not for this fun and unique and helpful theory of personality, I would not be here, writing this Post! 

8) You know Christine did something at ‘the coop’ this week that might serve a grat item prompt, if I may borrow (and mutate her idea)… i.e. to tell a story from the early days of my life in the ‘sphere. It ties into Item # 7, the role of the Wakefield Doctrine in my (online) life.   So anyway… a couple of years ago (stop me if you’ve already heard me tell this story!) I was doing a FTSF** and I came across this small blog, ‘Considerings‘. I liked it immediately… very intense, personal and rather well written  and clearly there was a clark on the other side of the computer screen. So I started ‘hanging around’, reading each week on Fridays and then other days and, finally, I started commenting. (This act of commenting is a testament  to the Doctrine, in that many of the Posts were dealing with difficult situations, (in the life of the author) and, although I didn’t know the author (our Ms. Rogers, of course), I did know that she was a clark and therefore I felt comfortable enough to respond as I would to a person I already knew. Because, in a sense I did.
Anyway….!!   so, I was writing comments at Considerings for, probably a month or two when, totally out of the blue, I get a Comment at the Doctrine from a woman living in the Midwest. It was an interesting Comment,  ‘I found your post interesting…. I’ve seen you at my friend Lizzi’s blog and I wanted to introduce myself’.  I sat back in my chair and smiled, as I immediately realized that a) the comment writer was a scott and 2) she was checking me out. her purpose was simply to make sure I wasn’t some kind of un-desirable, stalker kind of person, and so, I smiled. I smiled because of the value of the Wakefield Doctrine in understanding people (including total strangers), and I smiled because that is what a scott does when they have a clarklike friend… Christine did not need to ask Lizzi if she needed help, Christine did what a scottian friend would do.  Naturally we got along splendidly right from the start.
I am grateful for the Wakefield Doctrine.

9) Hey! Always grateful for the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules)… it represents the kind of attitude that makes this bloghop the excellent thing that it is… ‘rules without force’ the manifestation of the sense participating in this community, according to ‘where we are, on a given weekend’  Very cool

10) Lets close with the photo I took as I headed back to the office to finish my day today:

20150123_160859_resized…I was driving <—- and the sun was beginning to start to set.

 

Ten Things of Thankful

 

 Your hosts

Join the Ten Things of Thankful Facebook Group


* both Christine and Dyanne are scotts and that’s where they live, in the present, immediate and real world… ( as they might say, ‘hey! grab for the brass ring… you only have so much time here!!’)

** ‘Finish The Sentence Friday’ my first bloghop… and still a favorite, though I have not participated in a while, Kristi was one of the hostettes…

Share
Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: , , ,
« Older Posts