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

(*from ‘Chelsea Morning’, Joni Mitchell)

surely, of the workdays of the week, Thursday mornings are, somehow and in some way, the most tolerate of flashbacks (musical and otherwise).

Of course, you’re right. Of the three, you would think that it would be the rogers who would be most prone to getting transported back in time by those amazingly comprehensive memories, elicited by chancing on a song that was a part of the time past. But no, if you were to find yourself a roger right this moment* and said, “hey, listen to this song! remember? back in college… dormitory… smell of sandalwood incense?….magic markers …bath towels drying on the back of the door?” there is a good chance that their response would be along the lines of, “yeah, sure. You hated that song back then…we used to make fun of the kids who listened to that music. remember?”

It would seem to be clarks who are more likely to embrace…no, make that: deliberately encourage and enhance the effect of a music-memory, with it’s astonishingly powerful emotional affect. Odd. Or is it? rogers may appear to live in the past. …on closer examination, rogers definitely hold ‘tradition’ as a transcendent value, a reference for finding their own way to live life ‘the Right Way’. But, they don’t believe in it, at least not in as personal terms as would a clark.
What !?!
Wait. That can’t be right! It does strike me as decidedly odd that we seem to be arguing that clarks are more personal than rogers!  But, fortunately, the Wakefield Doctrine can deal with such seeming paradoxeses  I’m talking about ‘the Everything Rule’. To use this rule, we need only ask, “How does a song-keyed memory flashback manifest in the worldview of Herd Members? How does it manifest in the reality of the Outsider?”

for a clark, the full-sense memory that is risen by, as today, my stumbling across today’s song, is a connection to a place…a reality that is real.  Well, as real as anything else in the day of an average clark.

for a roger, the full-sense memory is validation  it (manifests) as a reminder, a proof that the past is only a segment of the stream of events (in the life of the roger in question, and therefore all rogers), that represent the essential rightness of life

…ok off to work

* better not, rogers are not known for their relaxed embrace of challenging conversations at early morning hours

jeez… if anyone out there is saying, ‘this Joni Mitchell, is she a clark?’  lol…try this:     (no, really, the thing here is her introduction to the song. Remember what we say about determining worldview, ‘how does the person seem to be relating themselves to the world around them’…)