Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
So lets start this thing! No, you’re right! There is no significance to the order of the ‘Things of Grateful’, at least I don’t think there are… but, but it is certainly seductively suggestive*. Since there are very few Rules governing the creation of the Grat List, I’ll make a poll my first Item! yeah, boy! I’m sure glad that idea showed up when it did, otherwise I’d be slogging through the First Five and looking for my ‘hook’ all morning!
1) I’m grateful that the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) encourages the use of alternate expressions of gratitude, case in point, a survey of Participants on the question: Does your List represent a Priority of Gratitude or are the Items (comprising your TToT) effectively random?
2) While we wait for the others to respond, I will say that I’m grateful for the gift of a plant from an associate at work. It’s a money tree and stands about 18 inches tall. I researched ‘Money Tree’ (common name for gifted plant) and read that they can grow to 18m. I am from the Land of Y Chromia so you can well imagine what I did upon learning that! I immediately bought a much larger pot, more dirt and a little fertilizer. Taller is better, yo.
3) Una and I went for a walk yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately the sun is setting at, like 2:00 (and that’s on a sunny day) but we had fun… went to the bank where the Teller sent dog treats back with my deposit slip, which I gave to Una. …the treats, not the deposit slip.
4) We’re into the colorful-and-pleasing-if-you-enjoy-the-splendor-of-dying-leaves season, here in southern New England. Ok to look at. Not ok to think about.
5) Phyllis’s tree house is serving the secondary function of ‘lookout’…. Phyllis and Una go and sit on the little balcony/deck that faces the pond and gaze at the Autumn splendor.**
6) the Gravity Challenge is continuing… it’s proving to be one interesting place, it provides something different for everyone who participates, you should come by and join us sometime… click here and, well…. as a Post that you might read and understand? maybe you should ask someone. Tell you what! Today’s Gravity Challenge will have links to each participant’s blog… go ask them why they do it. Start by clicking here.
7) zoe continues with her very pleasing ‘hop ‘the Six Sentence Story‘ ‘never have so many write so much with so few (….er words!)’ def you should go and read and, hell! join us next week, the more the merrier and god knows I’m totally a ‘merry’ person.
8) thank you to everyone who went to Jukepop and read the latest Installment in my serial, ‘Blogdominion’ (if you haven’t been there yet, go! you’ll find a Prologue and Chapter 1) I’m working on Chapter 2 this morning and hope to have it up by Sunday’s end! I’ll be sure to let you know.
9) work, should be listed, as it is interesting and supports my newly discovered writing jones
10) 1.3 (the first and still the Best of the Secret Rules)… wait a minute…. maybe there’s a place for the SGV in my….nah, it’s getting confusing as it is (why didn’t anyone tell me that when you create characters for fiction, they sometimes start changing on their own?! Damn!)
*well, I’m on this big writing kick and, since I’m practicing and learning, well everything is a lesson and yeah, ‘seductive’ and ‘suggestive’ certainly are a pairing that draws the attention….even if it is 7:14 am in the morning lol
** Phyllis is a self-admitted roger and rogers do this thing, something that neither clarks nor scotts do and that is ‘to gaze’…. you will, if you’re practicing your Doctrine, come upon a roger appearing to ‘stare into space’. If you thought this, you would be wrong. clarks ‘stare into space’ rogers, ‘gaze’… there is a difference. (scotts? no way, are you kidding me? scotts not pay attention to their surroundings (physical and social)??! sorry, go read you Doctrine! ain’t gonna happen!)
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Frist.
FRIST indeed!
Of course it’s a trick questions CLARK.
I laughed out-loud at #2. And number four is something I’m trying to separate in my mind. That it is okay to enjoy the beauty of the colors without thinking about what is coming next. Trying to stay in the present, and all that. I’m not too pleased with my gravity challenge this week, but I’ll keep on keeping on (or keep on trucking) because of the potential for great change.
I don’t think that it shows in the thumbnail photo, but I tried transplanting a another plant in the pot… on one of the warmer days this week there were blooms on the rose bush that we have by the deck, so I cut off a length of new growth and stuck in the dirt in the pot in my office where it’s been busy dying…updates as they come available
Oh yes, I have had so many people putting up pictures of fall leaves and they are beautiful. We will get a few here around Thanksgiving..but for now it is perpetual summer. I enjoy the pictures of the leaves, but I secretly enjoyed #4 !
My first guide dog puppy, Reno, would have been just as delighted to eat the deposit slip!
Love the poll..it’s interesting to see the results/
How nice of you to share the dog treat with Una. ;)
Oh how I would love to sit in the tree house with Phyllis! If one must live through the season that leads to winter, I can’t imagine a better place than a tree house in the middle of the trees.
lol, now I would not deprive Una, (even if the Bank Teller sent the treat to me!) Yeah, Will have to get some updated seasonal photo of the treehouse with dog and human.
Yes, I gaze. That gaze frighten even me!
It is an interesting characteristic (of rogers), I never seem to get tired of the different ways of looking upon the world that the Doctrine affords us.
Oh boy, as much as I want to comment on everything here, I’m fixated on the fact that Phyllis has a treehouse with a balcony overlooking a pond. That. Is. Awesome. I’m sure she so enjoys the time spent there with the lovely Miss Una.
yep… there is something fun (and even cool) about something as… frivolous and fun as having a tree house (as an adult). She has a way of doing that.
Yes the treehouse in the middle of the woods is awesome. Yes I gaze and also as a Roger I think back to the Greek mythology story – The Rape of Persephone. Persephone is the daughter of Zeus (king of the Greek Gods) and Demeter (goddess of the harvest). She is considered the vegetation goddess (she causes the plants to sprout in the spring). Zeus lets Hades abduct her “because she is beautiful”. Demeter is distraught and stops the plants from growing. Zeus asks Hades to give back his daughter. Hades tricks her into eating food which causes her to have to spend half the year in the underworld. She comes up in the spring when everything starts to “sprout” and goes back in the fall. The foliage is her sad farewell party. I think this story is so much more appealing than scientific explanation of the color change.
I’m still pretty envious of Phyllis’s tree house. Hopefully next year I’ll be able to make my little shed for myself.
sheds are fun, mostly because you can pile the weirdest shit in them and not be overly concerned, what with the shed being outdoors and such.
I do so enjoy the splendor of dying leaves! And viewing it from the treehouse??? Be still my heart!
yeah… it is kinda cool, no?
I was going to say that I most certainly do stare into space, thank you. I wonder if I’ve completely missed Six Sentence Stories…I may just have one to offer.
Also, I love the fall and the changing of the leaves. I would LOVE to live in NE and get a truly spectacular dose. A treehouse from which to observe this??? Heaven.
thank you for getting a mindworm started in my head…. hey! why should I be the only one! everyone? we all have our Lisa to thank when you spend the day with Fred Astire in your head!
lol… cool (on the Six)…. well, on the rogerian characteristic too
I know the leaves fall and then die and then winter comes. Flowers and plants and everything will do that, but I choose to love this time of year and I may be one of the few who doesn’t dread the oncoming cold and snow. So I take it the treehouse won’t be quite as inhabitable when the flurries come?
… not for me! lol (but Phyllis and Una might not be so cold sensitive)
I voted.
The sun sets at 2:00 – it sure seems like it in November and December, but I like it. Then once Christmas is over, I’m done with it and want some light.
I’ll be back with 6 Sentence Stories this week! Woot!
that’s why I look forward to, and call December 22 the end of Winter… the days get longer. A little at first, but just the feeling that it’s getting longer is enough to keep me going.
Okay, I’ve been wanting to ask this for some time, and I’m sure there will be some chuckling somewhere, but is there really a Secret Book of Rules for this blog hop. Is it available to all who post on TToT? There. I asked that question that has been waiting to be asked. LOL That was pretty daring of me. Since all of these bloggers here are kind and caring and not prone to ridicule (well maybe joke a little, and once in a while a lot), I’m expecting a wonderful answer to this. :-) Your Blogdominion is coming right along. That takes some dedicated writing time. Good for you. You definitely have a captivated audience. That tree house speaks to me too. How fun.
Yes. Yes it is.
As a matter of fact, SR*. 898/3.2 states unequivocally that….
So the why of having such a thing is uncertain, but it’s value in my opinion is huge. Perhaps the best illustration is the case of the first (known) use of the Book, I totally recall reading in the very, very early days of the TToT a Post in which the writer lamented that for a number of reasons (reasons that all readers could identify with), but she just could not come up with 10 Items. She apologized for letting everyone down, but 9 was all she could write… there was a Comment (to that Post) that said, ‘There is a secret Rule, Rule 1.3 that clearly states that, “the fact of completing a TToT list, in and of itself was undeniably something to be grateful for, and therefore, that instance of gratitude could be cited, in said list, provided that, the additional Item results in 10 Things of Thankful. the writer did mention that this was not just opinion, but in fact, a part of the Secret Book of Rules (aka Book of Secret Rules).’
and, once we all knew it was there, well, there are times when you’re writing a TToT where special circumstances call fro special measures…. and thank god for the BoSR/SBoR
I trust that helps. Zoe has a post where it’s explained in much more clear and direct terms
SR. Secret Rule it’s part of the whole idea of (a) Book of Secret Rules (aka Secret Book of Rules) that one must put in the not-inconsiderable to cite a specific rule that any reasonable person would concluded applies in the way that the person seeking relief under the BoSR/SBoR would want