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

I was wandering the ‘net and scrolling through the Facebook when I saw a familiar face. The cool thing is that it was of person I’ve never met but have known since he was, like 5 years old. The best part of this virtual world is the opportunity, if we’re lucky, to share or get a glimpse into the lives of friends (and their family) that we may very well never ever find ourselves in the same room with. But, as I’ve said elsewhere,  the gift of the blogosphere is to be able to say, “hey remember the time that Tucker…” or “that reminds me of the trip you all took to…”

This bloghop is where I ‘got serious’ about blogging. The FTSF is a deceptively simple premise, ‘though fraught with the hazard of self-revelation. It was, for me, the place to be for a number of Fridays…back in the day.

This week, Kristi and them at FTSF are inviting us to complete the sentence:

“When it comes to traveling…”

…I stay indoors.

Funny thing about posts in general, and this bloghop in particular, sometimes you have an idea of what to write but it doesn’t …make you type. Sure it’s a sound idea, a good theme, but its just not fun. Then there are ideas that yell in your head, ‘Hey! There you go!’ (The idea that I really like was right there in my intro, but it took coming back this morning (Saturday) to know what I would write.*)

In my more mundane version of this post, I would have said something about the business trips I used to take and how they were adventures, not merely in seeing new places, but in taking myself to new and different places. Watching myself as I explored other parts of the country was as much fun as going there (whatever that means).

But in this version, (the fun one, where the words rush out like kids out to a school yard), when I read the sentence fragment, I would say

“When it comes to traveling… I like to tag along on friends vacations.”

The photo of Tucker (on Kristi’s post) says it all. My immediate reaction was, “Hey! I remember that time.”

I have never met Tucker, but I’ve known him for a number of years. This is true simply because Kristi has afforded me the privilege of sharing parts of her life, through her blogposts at Finding Ninee and (her) comments at the Doctrine and the other places people meet in the virtual world.  So, I remember the trip to the beach and the trip to Colorado. This is travel is a very special way. Think about gatherings of family and friends, especially those made up of people who have not been together in some length of time, the binding thread, the proof of membership to the group, is almost always, “…remember the time….”

Anyway. While some of the most fun I’ve had traveling has been sitting in airport terminals, listing to the voices on the PA try to not sound like that part in ‘Airplane!’ about the White Zone being for loading and un-loading only, most trips are a collection of Doctrine posts.

The real fun in traveling, at least as it comes to mind as I type and tell you about the time driving up through the Mississippi Delta and stopping at ‘Edna’s QQICK Gas ‘n Go’ and the fun conversations I had, has been in hearing about my friends road trips and family vacations. It’s the 21st Century version of slides in the living room on a Saturday Night, (the only time of the year, barring New Years and Thanksgiving, when Planters Cocktail peanuts were available in free supply to a 7 year old clark) and seeing what another family saw on their vacation. Off course it’s not the slides, it’s not even the vicarious pleasure of the commentary, it’s the sharing of one family’s life with another friend or family that’s the greatest gift of this here internet here.

“…remember that time that…”

*  actually it took ‘hearing Kristi’ which is to say, reading an overnight comment from her on a Six Sentence Story post… funny thing about ‘voice’ and reality.