Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
L. Lewis, ( alas, still no proof of being related to C. S. Lewis, Sinclair Lewis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Daniel Day Lewis or even Lewis Carroll!), invites us all, this week, as she has since time immemorial, (or May of a few years ago), to share the things in our lives that we perceive as having the quality of gratitudinosity, (i.e. capable of causing a person to be thankful, the elusive and totally legendary, ‘aww particle’).
You know, not that I’m not totally into simple, chronologically-rigorous, straightforward accounting for recent events and happenstance, simple logical lists and such, but sometimes, on those rare occasions, I feel the urge to break loose from the bounds and bindery of rules and regulations. (There is a reason that the name of this bloghop is ‘Ten Things of Thankful’, hint: it has to do with the number of items necessary to conform to the standards set in the beginning of her project. That said, there are times when we all find ourselfs needing to follow the rhetorical road less travelled. For the record, I have been one to do this, from time to time exhibiting a belief that, ‘good intentions trump decaphilia every time.’)
So this week, I’d like to present a supra-grat item to:
1) to the nature of this virtual world and the ‘real’ people who create community, (such as the TToT and the Gravity Challenge and the Six Sentence Story and countless other gathering points), for the imaginarily real people who are sitting behind computer screens beyond number, sending their word-shaped thoughts outward towards other, virtually the same as the people in your house and who you meet on the street everyday, people. It’s pretty remarkable and what amazes me the most, is that all this doesn’t result in one long chain-letter, or spray-painted graffiti on digital city-building walls, rather, it results in knowing people and coming to know (to a certain extent, in some, small and specific and in others, broad and generalized), other people and their lives. The realization of this came a couple of years ago when, probably in these very pages, I said to one ‘person’ about another ‘person’, “this reminds me of the time that Christine had a chicken get out and it managed to climb a tree and she had to put on those over-sized boots and trudge through the mud…” There is ‘knowing people’ and there is ‘knowing people’. The former is commonly seen in the workplace and the supermarket and passing in the playground and hanging out at the corner. The latter is about sharing history, inviting others to learn about things that don’t show as we walk about during the week or when we pass each other in innumerable cars on crowded highways. That we allow others to see our lives means that I can see a name on the screen and laugh to myself because, I remember the time….
…so to all the imaginary people here on these pages, I say, ‘thanks! without M. Lewis, (who adamantly refuses to reveal that C.S was, in fact, her uncle), I would not have know that: Christine had a spider invasion and that she does this cool thing with random road trips or that Kristi, who is part of a remarkable community in her own right, is very good with a camera out a car window at 90 mph, or Kristi Campbell is getting shorter and shorter in the time I’ve known her, (this being the more reasonable explanation,’cause Tucker can’t be getting that tall, that fast) or that Michelle is, like so fearless, as to take us for a live video walk to the park, or that Sarah has this mutant baking skill that produces stuff that looks like it was stolen from a bakery, (not saying that she steals from bakeries, per se), or Lisa doesn’t have this way cool writing room that has bookselfs and everything in it or that Dyanne likes to jump in her car and drive 389 miles, cause she has a hankering for a Lil Debbie or because she needs to buy the perfect accessory for her firefighter outfit, (that she totally should wear on the first day of her class each fall, wake them little 5 years right the heck up), or that zoe (aka ivy) didn’t have a dog name doug (or skip)… and that zoe put her car back together during ‘the Vacation Trip of last summer’ with nothing but duct tape, and that, sadly, there is not enough duct tape in the world to put back together her heart, now that doug/skip is gone.
these are the elements of my Ten Things of Thankful this week.
(if desired, I can produce a numbered version of the above, simply send a SASE to ‘who-the-hell-is-this-guy-and-when-was-the-decision-made-to-let-him-have-a-computer-with internet-access?!’)
Having lived through the loss of an animal companion, I offer my two favorite vids.
Your hosts
Join the Ten Things of Thankful Facebook Group
About clarkscottroger
FRIST!
I love today’s post. For all sorts of reasons.
But I don’t, however, like that I learned of the passing of someone, who became a part of my life’s landscape.
Because Zoe shared her Doug fka Skip with us, we all became a little richer.
These are beautiful words with beautiful sentiment, Clark <3
thank you abbie
Really, really love this! I have been bemoaning the lack of connection that we seem to have with other human beings all week long. THIS was the perfect antidote to my funk!
cool (this virtual world has surprise aspects and qualities that are, well, surprising!)
Hey Clark, i have many friends of whom i include you and your family….many of my friends are writers too so i am privy to all sorts of artistic and literary gifts, but i don’t think anything more dear could have been said to me about losing skip….thanks for this, your call, and your friendship. Z-
glad to be in a position to do this thing
I am mourning Mr. Skip and you are right, he is a part of all of us because Ivy shared so much of his life with us. There is a very real, albeit virtual connection to that lovable poodle who will live long in our hearts.
yeah… and, we even knew (of) skip live(in video person!) on the Friday vidchats (at least those times he would not be put into a snooze by the oddly speaking humans)
Oh no. I hadn’t heard about Doug. I am a bit behind. I’d just read today about the vet’s prediction of his remaining time. Awww.
You likely understand, as your dog is such a frequent TToT here. I am so often irritated by my own dog, who doesn’t make my list as often as he probably should, as just this week my brother reminded me of how much Dobby really does mean to me in my life.
Dogs are special. Enjoy time with yours and I’ll do the same.
Looking forward to next chapter come Monday.
yeah, it’s no secret that I consider dogs, actual and real role models, at least for me in my efforts to live life properly
You’re so right about the knowing people and the “knowing people” because it’s true – there’s something about these pages here on the interwebs that allow us to be our real selves and share real thoughts and too-fast growing little boys and unfixable by even duct tape heartbreaks… so much more than we really do at work or on a playground…
I sat to write about Tucker’s seventh birthday and got sidetracked and now am writing about black lives matter and trying to figure out whether it’s even possible to get it all into a post for TToT…
this internet sho is an interesting place, one I can’t say I would have ever anticipated,… no, make that a definite ‘not anticipate’…. and not simply the technology, but the relationships with the people here…. it’s like (this will make little or no sense to 80 percent of the readers), in high school how you sometimes interacted with a person who was a member of a clique, and belonging to none, I would be totally not be welcome. More like rejected instinctively… but then there’s that time you met the person outside of that social context and they seemed alright, even someone you might have been friends with, if things had been different.
I kinda get that sense (for myself) her in the inter web.
ya know?
Oh, your comment about the duct tape and a broken heart was just so perfect! I think we are all mourning together with Ivy this week.
true
Ah, Clark, this may be the best ttot post you’ve ever written. We friends on the net really do “know” each other. I never thought I’d think that could be true. But after all these years, we really have learned a lot about each other. It is awesome that we can say, “that reminds me of the time…”.
And you last bit about not having enough duct tape…such a good writer of thoughts you are.
thank you, this blogosphere is an interesting place, that’s for sure!
SHIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTT!!!! You found me out!!!! I do! I do steal from bakeries!
No, I steal from Lydia. She’s the baking queen. Seriously, she did talk me through the tractor cookies.
So, I don’t have that thingumbob or sniglet (Lizzi taught me that word recently–tell her I used it) that alerts people I’ve responded to comments, so I’ll ask here:
When I say that I get great pleasure from using up supplies in my house to create something new is that Scott or Roger? Is it just Scott that I like to get busy when my thoughts are just too much? And the Roger thing is the use up the ribbon thing?
Just curious.
lol
let me ask, ‘when you’re using your supplies to create something new, do you have the thing in mind first and know what needs to go into making and then look around the house, or do you grab a bunch of things and have to all and see what they might be useful in making?
as to being busy, is it set and established routines that make you feel better (in terms of thoughts are too much) or is the activity so active that you forget to think for a while
(in both cases, rogerian versus scottian realities.)
good questions btw