Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
An Illustration done by Gustav Doré for John Milton’s Paradise Lost. (that part is simple)(lol) The bottom two thirds of the drawing has angels falling into darkness. The center-most and therefore easiest to see angel has a sword in his right hand and his left hand to his head. He is falling backwards his wings spread, not helping any. The top third of the drawing shows an angel with a sword, backlit by a bright light, his wings are spread, his sword pointed downward. Clearly this angel is forcing all the others downwards, out of the light, into the darkness. nice guy
The weekend is the time of the Grats. Grats, as in, the Ten Things of Thankful bloghop (aka the TToT). Originally created by Lizzi Lewis, (the totally under-celebrated, great-grandniece of no lesser personage than CS Lewis*), as an exercise in the practice of gratitudaphila** Lizzi, much like Lara Croft, (except maybe, without so much gunplay, but certainly willing and able to take on villains), is off on adventures. We are fortunate that Josie has taken up the reins and is now the host and curatoress of this weekly exercise. The effort, in time and energy (and spirit) necessary to make a place like the TToT available, is not to be underestimated.
Ten things would be nice. As many things (of thankful) as you might. The guiding principle (imho) is that, bound by good intent, we all benefit from reading and sharing experiences, both from the week past and from the distant past. Plus, since the precise format is left to each and everyone one of us, it can be fun.
1) The internet. Totally earns first place in my appreciation this week. The adventure of looking up the photo at the top of the post. (For a clark, the internet is, like, the biggest used bookstore in the world…)
2) work (which I really need to stop with the writing and start). But I’m grateful for the flexibility of the business I’ve chosen.***
3) Garden. This week I started the aeration process. The soil in our area, (or at least our backyard), tends to clay, sand and gravel, so I’ll need to dig up the first 6 or 8 inches and mix in some loam and such (photo provided):
The letters, ‘U’, ‘n’ and ‘a’ showing as soil-brown against the surrounding green lawn. There are holes in the bare soil (that form the body of the letters) where someone apparently stuck a tool to make holes to allow the soil to be loosened.
4) the second half of the week has been rainy. Here is a photo of Phyllis’s treehouse
a distant view of a tree house at the end of a clearing in a pine forest. the foreground has white pines on the left and right and the center of the photo is a clearing with low shrubs just beginning to get new growth. the treehouse has walls of light-brown planks, a black-shingled roof and, in the front, stairs (4 steps up) to the open doorway.
5) and, of course, Una
Una sitting on her couch. the couch is brown leather which is reflecting the light from the window that it’s set in front of. this is where Una spends her time when one or both of us are home. on the back of the sofa is a beige quilt, the top of the back of the couch is washed out from the light. Una is surprisingly visible. She is laying, upright across the seat, her light-brown front legs are hanging over the edge of the couch, she is looking sorta at the camera, her mouth slightly open in the dog-smile they all do. her ears are upright triangles and her tail and back legs show from the lighting from the window
6) the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers) that business in Item 1? that clarks really like the availability of information (true and nonsense varieties), well, that’s sort of like saying, ‘fish like water’ or ‘scotts like loud, shiny objects that try to run away’… It is fundamental to an appreciation of the worldview (aka personal reality) of a clark to realize that the endless curiosity exhibited by clarks is both an example of, and a manifestation of, their/our primary motivator, i.e. the need to acquire information, to learn things, to apprehend the new and unique. All is in the service of learning how to be real people. (I’ll leave it to the clarks among the participants of this ‘hop, to expand on that last). Best Illustration of a scott and a clark in a familiar real life situation (with commentary from glenn, a friend of the Doctrine and a scott with a significant secondary clarklike aspect): ‘One day glenn and his father were at the mall in Wakefield**** and as they approached the car, they saw a flyer under the windshield wiper. (As glenn tells it), “Well, naturally I was going to crumple it up and throw it on the ground, but my dad, who’s a clark, was standing there reading it!!!!”
7) The Rhode Island Romance Writers, my writers group meets on the first Saturday of the month. Today being that Saturday, I will be leaving. I’ll try to bring back something useful and/or interesting for Items 8 and 9
8)
9)
10) SR 1.3 (‘Voted the Best Secret Rule’ 3 Years running)
* well, define ‘true’ according to at least one online dictionary as: ‘7: logically necessary‘ (online dictionary motto: ” online and a dictionary, how can this be anything but true?!”
** not a ‘real’ word…yet
*** lol Hyman Roth to Michael Corleone in Godfather II
**** yeah, that Wakefield! (there really is one)
About clarkscottroger
Your TToT never fails to be my Saturday fix of fun and fascination, Clark! I assure you, bringing us all together for our weekly TToT sharing, is the most enjoyable thing I do, and I too owe it to Lizzi for creating this marvelous venue for us to do that!
Your comment about the Internet made me smile, right on target! I never cease to be amazed at the wealth of information and material that is now available at my fingertips as I sit here in my kaftan with my glass of iced tea, hair unbrushed, and furkids napping all around me. There are many things in my life I would surrender before I would give up my Internet access!
It is wonderful to have a career that offers you the flexibility to fit in other bits of life, which in turn recharges you with energy for your job, so it’s a win-win thing. Your Romance Writers Club sounds like great fun and inspiration, I can’t wait to see what highlights you might bring back to share.
I love Phyllis’s tee house! I want one! I want trees to go with it! :-)) Una is just gorgeous in that photo, the lighting shows off her beautiful markings and that smile tells me she knows it! What a lovely life she has!
I can’t wait to see your Una garden transformed into growing things, it’s such a whimsical thing! I admire the work you are putting into it. When are you going to head down and do that Joulie one for Ivy? ;-))
I’ve started reading your new book, and now need to catch up on the latest published chapters, loving it so far! The Wakefield Doctrine and your grasp of human interaction serves you well in relating the exchanges taking place between characters.
Have a great weekend and a truly inspiring week ahead! Thank you for being one of the pillars of the TToT community! :-)
A very significant part of the fun of writing is having to research online. Which, of course, is not the full-on foot noted ibid research, but enjoyable nevertheless. One of the things I enjoy is to ‘go to locations via google’ say, in ‘Home and Heart’ employing the street view google thing, I could walk up and down the streets of Crisfield and ‘stand’ in front of the police station in Atlantic City.
thanks for doing the host/curatoress thing so graciously
Information….for a clark is like….the air…that we breathe…
Hey! Thanks for the reminder that before I die, I have to watch the Godfather. And the 2nd one, at least :)
Love the garden. Can’t wait to see it mid summer all in bloom. Don’t forget to plant some flowers among the vegetables!
Always, the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers. Anyone needing a life tool, can’t beat it.
Have fun at the Writer’s meeting!
they (the Godfathers) have held up well over the years. of course, rent them rather than watch them on TV, better that way.
I agree with Josie. :) The UNA garden plot is fascinating and fun! Glad you have flexible work, too. Man…I need more of that in my life. LOL. But well…that might be happening soon!
I’m always grateful for the Doctrine, too. :)
we clarks sho do like our non-rigid routines. totally good work on your own part over at Intuitive….
I love your Una garden and that Phyllis has a treehouse. You are wonderful with explaining photos. It is an art in itself.
I think I mentioned it somewhere. What a challenging exercise (writing the photo descriptions is)… it brings home how much of the world can be taken for granted and, at the same time I am, hopefully improving my writing skills. We were talking about the treehouse today and Phyllis decided that lights in the Summer will be as much fun as were lights during Christmas.
It rained torrents in NJ of Friday. Perhaps you can install a zip line to the tree-house of Phyllis and Una. I know if Kerry were in the neighborhood she’d try it. By the way, your asterisks are some of my favorite parts of your posts. Have a good week.
oh man! (actually Phyllis has made that very suggestion.) The elevation of the house,relative to the treehouse is actually conducive as you see in the photos (the deck off the dining area is at the same level as the LR where I took the photo from. So a zip line would work, geometry-wise, at any rate. lol
yeah, I get a kick out of them…. you should try them (tip: as soon as you think of something that would be fun in a footnote, not only put in your asterix, but immediately go a few spaces down and write the footnote out… I spent not a few hours trying to remember what it was I had in mind when I first started using them. lol
Best secret rule three years running – too funny.
Great photos this week. The treehouse and Una garden are especially cool.
Would love to find a good writer’s group near me – so far, I haven’t found the right fit. There’s a memoir writing one at the local library, but I’m not writing memoirs, so…yeah.
(so, maybe buy one of the false nose and mustache disguises and go as the real life fictional character…er writing a memoir…?) too much, huh?
hey hows about something online as in call in/google hangouts? Granted its not the same without the banquet table of carrots and Lil Debbie cupcakes but it might be worth a shot. I’m up for that…. (I’m not yet comfortable with my Romance group to say, ‘Hey all I need to know is, ‘how do I write broader narrative without ending up with ‘War and Peace’)
I’m up for an online group!!! Let’s talk about that.
Definitely … will do a post about it tomorrow. Ideas mostly for format
That is rather a bleak-looking illustration at the top! Luckily its balanced out by the cuteness of Una – the world is right again!
she does have that effect!
Your opening illustration made me laugh as I thought to myself, Ah- a bit of light reading ahead!
I am not sure I realized you are participating in the romance writers group. I assume that is where Almira’s roots can be traced. That is awesome. Like Lisa our local library offers a writers’ group as well for all types of fiction. Most of what I write would work nicely with Lisa’s group. Too bad we are 1/3 of a continent away from one another!
Believe it or not, Almira started as a post I wrote for zoe’s Six Sentence Story! (no, really. six sentences, a bit of encouragement from Kerry and viola! Almira…lol it was very much a case of writing to see what happens next).
I joined the Romance Writers group, initially because a) I kept encountering advice and suggestions that, if for no other reason than to bulk up my query letter, that I join a group and, being such a small State, there are only two in-real-life groups to be found in RI. There is, of course, in order to become like people one wants to be like (i.e. published), one should do the things they do, and associate with them as much as possible.. the ‘rubs off Principle’
That is very interesting to me to learn that Lizzi is a grand niece of C S Lewis!
I think the clay just gobbles up the good stuff every year, because it seems that the soil always requires amendments again the next year. We have the red clay, the kind that leaves hard-to-get-out stains.
Having a job/career that allows for flexibility is the best kind.
I hope your Writers Group meeting was helpful.
I’m afraid that is a little imaginary history on my part. The CS Lewis connection… (note to self: watch the expiration date on ‘running gags’) back in the day, when she resumed her maiden name (do they still call it that? seems rather archaic, not bad, just archaic) I naturally made the connection to CS. His ‘Silent Planet’ Trilogy was a favorite of mine back in junior high school.
It was helpful. (As I alluded to in my reply to May, I’m a firm believer in ‘improvement by association’.)
I gotta confess outside of UNA I am at work and didnt even read the rest yet. BUt I found this in an old post on rewritten when I was looking for something else and thought I would share it with ya as my roger was showing and I was thinking about how much I miss you.
“…the blogosphere is a funny place. It’s one of the places where you can meet someone online and exchange a few words, read a few pieces of writing, make a couple of comments and Walla! Instant buddy… like buddy you’ve known forever… like long lost pal kinda buds… Like if we met without the aid of the internet it wouldn’t have happened as fast cuz you just don’t have the opportunity to connect as quickly in real time.
So a few months back I started hanging in just such a place. It’s a quirky little corner of the Internet called The Wakefield Doctrine. QUIRKY?! You ask? Yup…and when I say that, I say it with the utmost respect and I am hopeful it will be received that way as well. Specifically, I mean it is an educational experience, an often humorous experience, an often intriguing experience, and for me anyway a chance to learn something or at least reflect upon something I most likely haven’t considered in the past… Its often an opportunity to flex some intellectual muscle with the rather considerable intellect of the progenitor Clark (and you will have to go there to find out what that means). GO AHEAD , I’LL WAIT.
Well, in a completely Rogerian twist (AHA! You didn’t take the opportunity to go check it out did ya? Well , I mean it…I WILL WAIT… no rush… REALLY… so if ya want to know what I’m talking about go on over to the Doctrine before going any further…If not well, you’ll probably remain a bit confused by some of this post.)”
lol
confused by this post?!! as if
you are on the money with that essential and way too easily under-estimated difference between the ‘real’ world and the ‘sphere, in terms of it’s capacity as a social environment. I would submit that it is of an order of magnitude superior literal world when it comes to allowing for connections (and not simply name and address connections, rather ideas and thoughts, the true identity of a person) among and between people.
one of the odd things about clarks is our lack of a sense of historical time, as in, ‘hey! how long have you been working at…’ or ‘you’ve lived there since’, we have totally none. Which is odd, seeing how we have a very developed sense of personal time. If you say, I need you to wake up at 5:23 tomorrow….done, or ‘hey, clark, let me know when 4 minutes are up…’ no problemo but home many years I’ve been here in wonderland, I would have to do the math.
surely we must be due for some kind of vidchat event….
and thanks a great deal for maintaining the Six Sentence Story ‘hop. not just fun, but good for any of us who have to hit the right series of keys in order to relate ourselves to the world around us.
tell Joules “ARRR” for me
Did someone say “vidchat”?! Tell me when!
Remember when zoe? :) Seems like forever… ago.