Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
( courtesy of zoe and her friend )
Now we’re getting ‘old school Doctrine Post writing’. Today’s subtitle? On the way in to my office, the local college radio DJ was describing an Ella Fitzgerald ‘record’ (Ella sings Duke or something, I’ll try to find it and play it), and as he was reading the liner notes, he said, ‘…she sings a part that is a fifth above (the melody line) or a fourth above.’ I have no explanation why that phrase ended up as today’s Post Title… part of being a clark, I’ll assume.
…speaking of being a clark, of late I’ve been wandering in the wilderness a little, post-writing-istically speaking, wondering if I still had the energy and enthusiasm and all. But then, at the end of last week, a flurry of Comments and Replys relating to the vidchat and the Dark place (of clarks) and this followed up on the weekend with a conversation with a clark who, though he never heard of the Doctrine, picked up on the principles totally without hesitation (yeah, it’s almost axiomatic that clarks take to the Doctrine like a dog after a duck). In any event, these events brought home to me what I have known all along (but tend forget), and that is, the key to writing Posts is/are the Readers. To be a little more specific, the key is my understanding and appreciating the Readers that are out there (with questions and curiosity and enthusiasm for the fun and uses of this rather cool perspective on the behavior of the people in our lives) when I remember that this Wakefield Doctrine is for them, not just me, then I feel the fun and excitement that’s been a part of this blog thing from the very first Post.
ya know?
…now I gots to find that Ella Fitzgerald tune so the subtitle can make sense to the rogers out there (clarks are creative in terms of music, but when it comes to technical virtuosity… you really need to find yourself a roger.)
So, with Post number 1301, I believe I will start with the basics and see where that takes us.
About clarkscottroger
does that mean this is post 1300? nice to see Monaquit (mono-keet) here.
yeah thank you for the pitcha what an amazingly attractive dog (yeah 1300 of course there are probably 15 or 19 guest posts among them and…)
Wow! Serious longevity. ..or fortitude! Congratulations!
…or obsession or fixation or mono-manical insistance on talking about only one…. damn! better save some of these words if I decide to do the A-Z lol
I was thinking that but decided best not to go there….
where? the run out of stuff (to write) or the ‘No, now that you mention it, I can totally see clark up on a stage, lecturing on the benefits of the Wakefield Doctrine!’
lol
1301!? WOWZA!
Youz got stamina, bro!
Anyways…yes, it’s like a litmus test, I’ve discovered: tell someone about the Doctrine and if they “get it” within a couple minutes, they’re a clark. I can’t say it works *every time* but every SINGLE person I’ve tried it on, and they’ve “gotten it” – yes, I ALWAYS can tell they’re a clark. LOL
Cynthia
I like to watch the eyes of the clark when I say something that I know is a part of their experience but is also something they (the clark) believe they keep to themselves… things like ‘getting lost in the world’ when you’re, like, driving down the road and the next thing you know, you’re home… the look in their eyes when they hear (something like that) is fun. and re-assuring and satisfying because there is a ‘recognition’ in their eyes…. another Outsider another clark!
Thirteen hundred, eh? Impressive. And Ella sings the Duke? Awesome album. I believe I will unshelve that one for my evening listening.
Lisa
yeah… funny about the number, I was talking to someone a short time ago, may have been Denise (or zoe or Lizzi or Cynthia… like the Posts I tend to come back tot he same subject matter)… the thing about Posts for me is that all I’m trying to do is write ‘the perfect Wakefield Doctrine post’ and such a post would be one that anyone with no other contact with the Doctrine, could read once and not only understand the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine, but be able to put it into practice and realize the benefits …immediately after reading. the benefits being: fun, enhanced people watching, additional insight into the people around them, be able to see the world as the other person is experiencing and (to) better understand themselves…. that is a perfect (Wakefield Doctrine) Post.
….gettin there. not quite yet but getting there.
1301 posts about the Wakefield Doctrine. Most impressive. And because of the Wakefield Doctrine, we all know this accomplishment represents something different in each of the 3 world views!
funny you should say that, I’m looking at Val’s comment which addresses or raises that very notion!
The first Wakefield Doctrine post that I read was about fixing a boom box. Do you remember that? I just remember the Scott took a piece of tape and made sure the volume was up so the person could hear the music again, while Roger commiserated and Clark tried to offer a technological explanation. At least that is how I remember it.
Val
Very cool. You read the story correctly, yet, (demonstrating a trait most who ‘get’ the Doctrine from the start, have in common, you extrapolated the reactions of ‘the other two’!) Nice. The story you’re referring to is what I call the ‘Eureka Moment’ of the Wakefield Doctrine and it was an actual experience in the real world. What is so neat is that, the only active participant in the story was scott (solving the problem for the customer with black tape)… the other two ‘reactions’ would be how a roger (who was not actually there) and a clark (who was but An Observer) might react, were they actively engaged in the problem solving that is the plot of this story.
(the event took place as you describe it, i.e. scott being asked to solve a problem. I stood off on the other side of the music store, far enough away to not be a participant, close enough to witness the interaction. His ‘solution’ generated an inexplicable feeling of ‘understanding’….’appreciation’ ...something that forced me to accept that scott was acting in a different reality than I was… and from that feeling, the Wakefield Doctrine followed. or something…. lol I still don’t tell the story as well as I want, but that feeling of ‘the world turning’ is still very much with me.)
I imagine anyone who has written 1300 posts would at some point doubt whether he still has it in him. Glad you realized this blog isn’t about you. :)
Mostly unrelatedly, I was at a lecture the other day, and the speaker said, “I may be wrong on occasion, but I’m never in doubt”. If there weren’t 800 people in the room with us, I would have jumped up and shouted, do you know about the Wakefield doctrine!?!? Funny thing, though, he was not a scott as far as I could tell. Of course, I’m horrible at identifying such things.
…thank you (for your statement about it isn’t about me, which I have always known, but, oddly or not, at times of my least inspired Post-writing, I would hear the voice in my head, ‘hey clark they don’t care how you feel about (fill in the blank)’ and while that voice is not 100% wrong or correct, I have always seen this as ‘clark presents: the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers).
tip: the everything rule says that lecturers can be clarks, scotts and roger… the first question was does the lecturer seem to be regarding the audience as a group of (tasty) individuals… savoring each as potential dinner, or was the audience there as proof and witness to the incredible value of what the lecturer was there to tell them?
(another tip, based on your being a scott: did you pay ‘wary attention’ to the lecturer or did your appetite get triggered (when he began to go on and on about himself)…lol