Month: March 2017 | the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine- (“kitchen sink? I believe we have that between Items … and the aisle near the checkout”)

March 18, 2017 By clarkscottroger

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

I’m borrowing from the approach I take when writing a post for zoe’s Six Sentence Story bloghop, i.e. that the most effective way to write something (a post, a story, a book or a blogpost), is to already be writing something. In the hope that what you write is something like what you’d set out…to….write.

This is, of course, the Ten Things of Thankful bloghop. Each week Josie invites one and all to share those things (or people) (or events) (or anything else) that elicit a sense of gratitude. It’s an exercise that is exceptionally varied in format, both in (how) one might express it, as well as how we experience (the effects of) participation.
(In the Wakefield Doctrine we have a thing called, ‘the Everything Rule’. In a nutshell (ha ha zoe), the Everything Rule says, ‘everyone does everything, at one time or another’. Of course, the context is the Wakefield Doctrine with it’s three worldviews (aka personality types). What gave rise to ‘the Everything Rule’ was that people sometimes would say, ‘hey! that’s a thing that a clark would do’ or, ‘isn’t that kind of job only for scotts‘. We’d look and say, “No! clarks, scotts and rogers (i.e. everyone) can do anything the other can, it’s how that thing manifests for the individual that is important”. ex: A clark and a scott and a roger can all go to a restaurant for dinner (together). fine. ‘going to a restaurant for dinner’ is a different experience for each of the three.)

Enough of the personality theory! the Everything Rule has an application to the TToT, (imo), in a similar way. How we experience this exercise can be different for each of us, how we benefit, (from participation), can be different for each of us. However, the common factor is the state/condition of thankfulness. same but different.

Boy! Am I glad the TToT isn’t a live-reading event…. the wind coming off the swinging exit doors would be gale force by this point in my presentation! lol

Item 1:

That there is, here at the TToT, the sense that the only requirement, (or ‘Rule’ if one chose to be provocative), is ‘good intent’. To hold that the sharing of one’s experience of gratitude, in whatever manner or form, as being something to be given without a secret (or overt) quid pro quo.

Item 2:

That, by our participation, we create a place, if only for a few days each week, where there is a common spirit (or to put it in more Y Chromistic terms: “hey! lemme tell you about what I think happened that made me grateful, then I totally wanna hear what happened to you.”)

Item 3: Phyllis and Una

Item 4: the gift (for today) of being able to walk and talk, pick up objects and move about, at will.

Item 5: the internet, as I experience it, including, but not limited to: zoe’s Six Sentence Story, the Gravity Challenge, Finish The Sentence and the other ‘places’ here in the ‘sphere

Item 6: the Wakefield Doctrine, (for the perspective it makes available and (it’s) challenge to see the world as the other person is experiencing it)

Item 7: the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) which, in part, includes ‘Items of Hypo-Gratitude’, defined as those things that are really aggravating, but, if we can just put a little distance between us, really isn’t the mountainous tragedy that it may seem at the time. Conditions necessary to cite hypo-gratudiness items: ‘ya gotta know that at the end of the day, it’s just a part of life’

Item 8: Sister Margaret Ryan. The hero(ine) of my first completed novel, ‘Blogdominion‘ is back. At least she will be, in the second book, ‘Home and Heart’. This will be another in the series that I’ve decided to refer to as, ‘nun noir’. Sister Ryan will be back at Jukepop (Jukepop motto: ‘ if you’re gonna write War and Peace, do it in serial format, that way by the time the reader notices, they’ll be hooked by the characters’) Hoping to have Chapter One ready this weekend. Sign up for an email link or just say, ‘hey send me them chapter links!’

Item 9: (to be determined*) (…while we wait for me to come up with something odd, but hopefully interesting, Hey! Kerry!! Any travel stories from your Mexico trip to help a brother out?… (thank you!).)

Item 10: SR 1.3 (new Readers? this, SR 1.3, is one of the most user friendly of the famous (or infamous) Book of Secret Rules (aka Secret Book of Rules), which, despite the name, is totally available to any and all participants of the TToT. (‘Book of Secret Rules motto: ‘hey! that sounds reasonable! just be sure to use faux legal (‘faux legal’) terms like, ‘in part’, ‘including but not limited to’, ‘loco parentis’, and, while you’re at it, a couple of ibid(s), op.cit and [t]otally non-sensical punctuation. It’s fun and totally useful. Need an explanation for a grat item you think might puzzle the other TToTeers? BoSR/SBoR!! (or, you can just say, ‘well, that guy at that Wakefield Doctrine blog assured me that is would be alright and, though a little odd, seemed harmless enough…’)

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: self-development, the Wakefield Doctrine, three personality types

FTSF -the Wakefield Doctrine- ” ‘You are old, Father William,’ the young man said,”*

March 17, 2017 By clarkscottroger

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

Friend of the Doctrine, Kristi invites you and me to participate in one of the coolest bloghops in the ‘sphere, the ‘Finish The Sentence Friday‘. The instructions are the simplest of all: there is, (each week), a sentence fragment provided and all we need do is complete the thought.

ya know?

This week’s Sentence in need of completing:

“When I was 11 years old…”

…I settled in for the struggle. The years approaching the embarkation point for the hormonal express, (bound for Adulthood and Maturity, ‘passengers not boarding voluntarily will be assisted to their seats… you are your own ticket‘), having had the vision of endless non-responsibility eroded by time and adults, was not necessarily a comfortable time. Having said that, discomfit is not always an irredeemable negative.

Fortunately, at the time, living those years from, say, seven years to eleven years old, my life was so full of new tasks, that I (as most of us) was spared an appreciation of the size and scope of the struggle ahead. The life(time) spent getting from seven to eleven was nearly full with the effort to learn how to apply the rules of the suddenly more social world. It was, at once, a world less protective and, yet more enticing, with the promise of independence and freedom. (Is there any more perfect illustration of the power/weakness that enthralled us all during childhood’s end than our total and complete lack of any sense of the price of the freedom from the chains of childhood dependency?) Probably the single largest hurdle to re-capturing what it was to be eleven years old lies in being in thrall of a promise unlimited improvement, (over our childhood lives).

Yet we all, at least those of us here today, negotiated that passage, the time of un-suspecting preparation for life.

I said it was a time of struggle. And it is famously said that, ‘history is written by the victor’; I would suggest that this applies today, to my effort to bring to the present a part of my life from so long ago. At great personal risk to my ever-fragile, virtual ego, I will say that the scars that I’ve acquired getting from there to here are beyond price (to me now). They are a touchstone that allows me (when I have the nerve or am prompted my someone as perceptive and persuasive as our host) to see out from the eyes of a young, (all-too-soon-‘not young’) boy and know that I did the best that I could. The proof of that, (to me, if no one else) is that I’m able to … (wait for it) … Finish Th(is) Sentence.

* obvious apologies to Lewis Carroll and them

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: the Wakefield Doctrine

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 16, 2017 By clarkscottroger

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

TAP

…tap… tap?!?! The prompt word is tap?

are you sure?

OK, I just went online and saw that the word is ‘TAP’ and god knows, if it’s online, then it has to be true. Give me a minute. Late start. This element (of warm-up) is coming at 8:06 am Thursday. yeah! I know! (There’s a window of ….something for me, for writing. too much real world and whatever aspect of my brain that enjoys doing this withdraws and hides, the 5 year boy, tolerating the company clothes demanded by the occasion, spotting the opportunity of an un-attended empty bedroom (with a pile of coats on the bed, like a high fashion igloo), withdraws and refuses to come out until all the strangers have left the house.)

…ah well.

oh, yeah… New Readers? here’s what we do. zoe provides us with a prompt word and our job is to make up a story using that word. A Six Sentence Story. the six in the name refers to the number of sentences it should contain. give it a try. it seems real hard and, if you’re not careful it might feel like work, but it is not. it’s fun (see? nary a capital letter in the last bunch of words! the only rule, really has to do with sentence count. ain’t nobody said nothin about grammar! like I said, Fun!)

PAT

“Tap”, he said.

Patricia thought is was strange to hear a single word, spoken in a solidly-baritone voice, given where she was at the time.

She sat at the console piano, in one of (many) practice rooms in the Music building, sounds of a variety of instruments lightly filling the air, in a quiet barrage of notes and timbres, none loud or assertive enough to proclaim the instrument of it’s birth, it was the sound of an mute orchestra in an asylum.

‘Tap, Tap, Tap.’

Now she was sure she heard it, words and not notes, the fact that she sat in a room that consisted of four walls, a ceiling and a floor, all of which, (except the floor and a little square of glass in the door), was covered in acoustic tile, looking like a sponge pressed into two dimensions; she looked at the sheet music tilted over the keys, ‘Mozart’s Table Music No.3’.

… said he, “Pat.”

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine

Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘(an) answer to yesterday’s question’

March 14, 2017 By clarkscottroger

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

So yesterday we had a post that in part posed a question to Readers. And, as is the way of this here blog here, the process of answering was both the clue to the answer and confirmation of the underlying assumption. (No! wait!! scott.… I’ll get things moving… just let me set up the premise… then music videos and excitement!! I promise!)

Recap:

I think I’ll settle for a quiz that’s as close to a personality assessment as you’re going to encounter here at the Wakefield Doctrine):

When you woke up this morning, did you feel good/scared/confident that today would be a good day in ‘the world out there’? If that sounds at all reasonable, go stand over there… no, there are others already in that section of the gym, you’ll see them when you get there.

When you woke up this morning, did you get up? ok… amuse yourself while I deal with the last group of personality types. Sure, anywhere will be fine.

When you woke up this morning, (well, lets rephrase that to ‘when you transitioned from quiet concern to active concern), did you feel that although you might describe yourself as confident, you will swear in a court of law that the world makes sense if you just work hard enough at understanding it. If you don’t find that description of the start of the average day totally un-reasonable, don’t go anywhere… stay here in the middle of the crowd of participants

There you have it! The three personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine!

How do you know which you are?

To which our friend Cynthia Sageleaf commented:

“Hmm…when I woke up this morning, I thought, man, I DON’T want to get up…I just want to stay warm and let that world out there just do its thing while I do my thing (reading, writing, contemplate) right here. lol”

So, New Readers? Cynthia is a clark* by her own admission. Now in her comment, she gives us clues to understand why the choice she made (from among the three) is the clarklike choice. Do you know what that is?

Hey! We’re not so much into the ‘Tell us the answer and we’ll tell you if you’re wrong or right’ here at the Doctrine. That being said, many of us enjoy the challenge of ‘getting it right’. Far be it from us to deny that self-affirmation that prompts that hand to shoot up in the back of the class…”I know this one!! I know! Call on me.”

So lets compromise! This is being posted in the morning. I’ll follow-up in the afternoon with a continuation of the discussion of the implications of Cynthia’s Comment. Since we’re kinda ‘open book’ in our quizzes here, if you want to ask Cynthia directly, go to her site ‘Intuitive and Spiritual’ and ask her. She is totally happy to help.

Be sure to come back this afternoon!!

OK it’s afternoon, in an early-evening sort of way. Thanks to Valerie for commenting (and thereby reminding me that I needed to finish this post).

So, the key element to the ‘quiz’ is the notion of the world as being ‘out there’. Not, ‘out there’ in the sense of, ‘oh man, clark, you’re really kinda getting out there with this personality theory’ but more ‘out there’ as in ‘separate from the person making the observation’. aka the Outsider. Of the three, clarks are the ones most comfortable with the notion that the world, reality, the girl in the checkout line at the Stop n Shop and your favorite nail technician at ‘Plenty Pretty Salon’ are in a place that is not where we are. We wake up and consider the world out there and decide how best (or if at all) we can deal with it. rogers and scotts tend not to make a distinction between themselves and a planet full of people, nephews, dogs, old movies and serious religion. They are a part of, on a pre-conscious level. clarks, it is said, can believe anything because we don’t believe in anything. (that is a deliberately provocative expressing of the notion that if there is always possibility, there can never be certainty.)

ya know?

(Since I did promise our scottian friends a music video):

* btw one of the few Rules around here has to do with designating a worldview to a person. It’s up to you to determine which of the three is your predominant worldview, and therefore, your personality type. No one has any authority to say, “You are a (fill in the blank) get used to it!” That does not mean that we can’t talk about another person’s worldview, but it’s the height of gauche to discuss someone’s worldview when they are standing right there, unless, of course, they invite discussion. aiight? Cynthia has stated publicly that she is a clark.

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: Personal, personality types, self-development, the Wakefield Doctrine, Understanding Human Behavior

Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘the pursuit of the Perfect Doctrine Post’

March 13, 2017 By clarkscottroger

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

It has long been my ambition to write the Perfect Wakefield Doctrine post. (One might argue about that adenoidial descriptor, it has always been my ambition, since the very first post, hell, before the very first post). In any event, I’ll give it a shot today, Monday.

The definition of perfection? A post that a total stranger, (to this blog or, for that matter, a person who has not come into contact with anyone who knows of this personalty theory), can read…once and apply it to their own life right then and there. They will look around and they will see the clarks and scotts and rogers.

As a personality theory, the Wakefield Doctrine is more the key a song is played in than it is the song. It is not a definition of a set of established behaviors, tendencies, drives and tropisms, rather it is a way of looking at (the) behaviors, tendencies, drives and tropisms that everyone you encounter today will exhibit. Including yourself. Unlike most of the personality theories that we all come into contact with, the Wakefield Doctrine is not concerned with establishing where, in a pre-established matrix of behavior, you fit best. The Wakefield Doctrine is not concerned with behavior. The Wakefield Doctrine is concerned with ‘how you relate yourself to the world around you’.

Quick set of assumptions and predicates: reality (the world around us) is, to a small, but certain extent, personal; we are, all of us, born with the capacity to experience the world around us in one of three characteristic ways: as an Outsider (clarks), as a Predator (scotts) or as a Herd Member (rogers); finally, although we all, (all of us), settle on, settle into one of the three worldviews, we never lose the capability to experience the world ‘as do the other two’.

Even though the Wakefield Doctrine is concern with relationships, it helps to have labels and definitions (provided that we do not ignore Korsybski’s famous statement, ‘the map is not the territory‘.

Hold on. Enough with the Wikipedia citations and the excessive use of semi-colons!

I think I’ll settle for a quiz that’s as close to a personality assessment as you’re going to encounter here at the Wakefield Doctrine):

When you woke up this morning, did you feel good/scared/confident that today would be a good day in ‘the world out there’? If that sounds at all reasonable, go stand over there… no, there are others already in that section of the gym, you’ll see them when you get there.
When you woke up this morning, did you get up? ok… amuse yourself while I deal with the last group of personality types. Sure, anywhere will be fine.
When you woke up this morning, (well, lets rephrase that to ‘when you transitioned from quiet concern to active concern), did you feel that although you might describe yourself as confident, you will swear in a court of law that the world makes sense if you just work hard enough at understanding it. If you don’t find that description of the start of the average day totally un-reasonable, don’t go anywhere… stay here in the middle of the crowd of participants

There you have it! The three personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine!

How do you know which you are?

Up at the top of the post, I wrote ‘how you relate yourself to the world around you’. That is how you know. Even at the Doctrine, where words are viewed as either those colored semi-candy things that you sprinkle on desert or, the yellow and black Cliff Notes that serve as badges of ‘success at any cost’ in school, sometimes we mean exactly what we say. When we say, ‘how you relate yourself to the world around you’, we do not mean, ‘how you relate to the world around you’. It is about you and your relationship to the world that the Doctrine is concerned. So read some posts, read some pages that describe the characteristics of the three worldviews. The perspective ( as an Outsider or as a Predator or as a Herd Member) through which the world is least blurry, that’s your predominant worldview, your ‘personality type’.

Congratulations! You’re a clark (or) a scott (or) a roger.

Lots more to tell you* stop by anytime!

*self-grading of attempt at the perfect Post: C+ … ok a B- (seeing how you’re a clark and clarks are nothing if they’re not willing to do most things to help the other person feel better).