Month: May 2017 | the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine

May 13, 2017 By clarkscottroger

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

A photo of a pineapple upside down cake* The view is from slightly above and in front, so that the full height of the edge closest to the camera is visible. The cake is on a white plate that shows as a bright crescent in 3/4s of a circle around the cake. The cake itself is varying shades of brown. The slices of pineapple on top are a shiny, pale yellow and there are cherries on the top (mostly in the center of each pineapple slice). The cherries are very red (one might be tempted to say ‘cherry red’ but one suspects a trap in so simple a description). The top of the cake is shiny enough to reflect light (little spots of white on each cherry and other places on round top). The side of the cake is mostly light brown, darkening at the very base where it looks crumbly, like the top of a coffee cake. * well, in answer to the un-asked question, this is the Wakefield Doctrine, we pretty much go stream of conscious on these posts. but you probably guessed that already

This is the Ten Things of Thankful bloghop, hosted by Josie Two Shoes each and every weekend. It is a ‘gratitude blog’ with a difference. The difference very much being what is asked of participants. (Of course, every and all bloghop(s) have requirements (although, it might be fair to use the work ‘definition’), because, well, because you wouldn’t want to work hard on your post of the perfect pineapple upside down cake, complete with alphabetized ingredient list, oven temperature (in both F and C), recommended sources of the basic materials, and, of course, time-lapse photos of every step of the process from, start to finish only to discover, (after seeing that your post received 1400 views, 6 blocks and a scathing letter from Facebook censors), that you’d posted it to ‘Cars, Craters and Babes.com’. (Why yes, that certainly was a long way to go for a slight chuckle and a, “those people at that Wakefield Doctrine, I do declare”).

So the idea is to share a glimpse of your reality. It is a given (at the Wakefield Doctrine) that perspective is the secret of the universe.

1) Una Garden update: In soil reclamation phase. The soil in our yard is way inhospitable to anything other than pine trees, moss and violets. The layer of loam is only a few inches deep, then it goes to clay and gravel. The solution is to dig up the good dirt. Dig up the gravel to a depth suitable to a successful vegetable garden. Replace it with good dirt. (photo below)

A photo of the Una garden. The left half of the capital ‘U’ and the upper left quarter of the small ‘n’ have had dirt dug up and removed. The top of the photo is the interesting part. There is a ‘lumpy, lozenge-shaped pile of dirt on top of a pale, almost aqua blue, square. Hard to see, but there is a red wheelbarrow at the right end of this pile of dirt. My gardening is all about the primary colors, apparently, no 64 crayon Crayola set (“Now with built-in sharpener!!) necessary to draw a picture.

2) I will cite health and (mostly) working body parts as Item 2 on the basis of being able to dig up dirt and move it from one place to another place, one of my all-time favorite things to do in life.*

3) * Speaking of Mother’s Day, actually Item 2 totally makes me think of Mothers Day. My love of digging. No, wait! I’m totally serious. I trace my life-long love of digging to a throw-away remark from my mother when I was 5, maybe 6 years old. I still remember the phrase, if not the context, ‘Clark never be ashamed of honest work. Even if you’re only digging ditches for a living, it’s something to be proud of.” And, to this day, I derive pleasure from the act of digging, not simply what the digging produces. So my compliment-in-a-question to those readers who have children is, ‘Given my example of the power of a mother (or father) in shaping a child’s mind, how do you work up the nerve to say or do anything with very young children?!!’ (My customary joke with the digging story is, ‘Why couldn’t she have said, “..even if you’re only driving around in an Aston Martin full of movie starlets, it’s something to be proud of.”

4) Chapter 8 of ‘Home and Heart‘ is on the shelf. I’m trying to get myself back to the once-a-week, Sunday Night publishing schedule. Hoping to get that re-established this weekend.

5) the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers) a perennial Item on our TToT posts, the Doctrine is both useful and amusing. A wish for many of us from the moment we stepped off the school bus for First Grade. Anyway, this past week, I was driving around, (seen Item 6) and talking to Phyllis, (see Item 8) and something came up in the conversation about ‘the three jobs’ (as defined in the Wakefield Doctrine). They are: Salesman, Scientist and Machine Operator. All jobs, professions, vocations, avocations and hobbies can not only be characterized as one of these three, but, as with so much of the Doctrine, links and associations between traits of the three personality types offer a very helpful perspective on the behavior of the people in our lives. (Hint1: the underlying principle of the Wakefield Doctrine is that our ‘personality type’ informs us of the relationship between (us) and the world around us. Hint2: scotts are Salesmen, clarks are Scientists and rogers are Machine Operator). Just in case Hint2 is not sufficiently intriguing, consider this: the definition of Machine Operator includes symphony orchestra musicians. No, really!

6) I am very grateful that the work I do allows me to drive around, and, if the need or desire strikes, talk on the phone while doing so.

7) Thanks to zoe for the photo of Skip on the landing page of the post (one of my favorite dog photos) (A most excellent doggie)

Phyllis and a (very) young Ola This photo is from, like, 1991. Phyllis is sitting cross-legged on the carpeted floor which is a grayish color. She is wearing khaki pants and a white blouse with purple stripes forming large squares. Sitting in front of Phyllis is Ola, a German Shepherd puppy. She is kinda sprawled (Ola, not Phyllis) Leaning against Phyllis’s folded legs, she has a toy mouse in her mouth (Ola, not Phyllis) and is totally staring at the camera. Her ears are up (which is unusual, as German Shepherds take 18 months to have their ears mature enough to stand up). Ola is probably not yet a year old and her colorings are mostly black, with beige front legs and some lightness around her eyes. The inside of her ’rounded triangular’ ears is pink enough to see in the photo.

9) Yeah, I’m totally sure I’ll see something cool tomorrow, be sure to come back!

10) Secret Rule 1.3 ( as cited from the Book of Secret Rules, (aka the Secret Book of Rules), ‘the act and fact of the completion of, in liming as you complete Item 9, the gratitude felt upon this stage of completion may serve as its own Item.’ It is customary to place SR 1.3 in the number 10 spot, but, there is a body of thought that would propose that provided the writer could produce convincing and compelling evidence of the (future) completion of the list, they could put it any damn place they wanted. (lol)

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: relationships, the Wakefield Doctrine, three personality types, Understanding Human Behavior

one plus five/noun + verb + object -the Wakefield Doctrine-

May 11, 2017 By clarkscottroger

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

Shake is the word of the week.

By word, I mean ‘prompt word’. (By prompt word, I mean the nucleus (actual or figurative) of a story of six and exactly six sentences)

By week, I mean every Thursday zoe hosts the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

This is one of them.*

Shake

“You wanna stay upright, here at Parchman Farm, you best learn to keep your head down and your heart with Jesus.”

The words passed down the line of men. Like a lost species, drawn back to a life-giving ocean, they waded through the shallows of dust that rose and covered a hundred worn and tired feet, “You keep shakin’ your head when the bossman talkin’, you ain’t never gonna see your family.”

In the griddle-flat bottomlands of the Delta, the Mississippi dawn was slow to burn away the cool green of the eastern horizon; like a young drunk, it spent its anger first thing in the morning, not caring about how long the day would be, confident it had more heat than the earth could absorb.

The line of men from Camp 11, pulled back to the fields by invisible threads that bound them to the endless scattering of white cotton bolls, spent their days, backs bent, dragging 11 foot sacks that clung to them like burlap tumors. As the cool of the dawn faded, a song grew quietly, not rising enough to be heard by the men on the horses that rode the day, “Judge gimme life this morn’in, Down on Parchman Farm.”**

* For whatever reason, Parchman Farm lodged itself into my brain this week and the internet being the wonderful thing that it is, I came to having an impression of the place that wouldn’t let go and so, zoe’s wonderful bloghop being the entertaining and instructive writing exercise that it can be, I decide to write me a prison six

** ‘Parchman Farm’, Bukka White (1940)

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

May 6, 2017 By clarkscottroger

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

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)

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

Six Hundred Character Word Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine-…

May 4, 2017 By clarkscottroger

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

the scene from my office window: 4 lane highway running right to left in the foreground, framed by my window. across the road a triangular building and to the right of that, a strip mall. top half is blue sky with grey and white clouds

This is Wednesday and that, up there, the title? Totally a Wednesday title. The thing is, I like to get started on writing my Six Sentence Story on Wednesday, even knowing that, the chances are, whatever I write here will not end up be my official entry. It’s just helpful (to me) to have words on the page before the deadline. Like walking through the door to a party or meeting that’s mostly strangers. You see someone you know, and, even if you can’t stand ’em, you’re like, ‘thank god, someone who I can pretend I’m talking to.’

(“Yes, you, down in front. You have a question? Why don’t I just start on the Six Sentence Story and finish it before Thursday morning? Good question. Sometimes I do. But not that often, as my writing time seems to be the morning, as opposed to the afternoon or evening.”)

I have the word. The prompt word. It’s the kernel, it’s the essence of inspiration, the nascent glimmer of a beautiful scene, up ahead in the near, far distance. Our host zoe, trusting her sense of the sublime, scouring the dictionaries from seven continents to find the perfect word to start us on an incredible writing adventure. And the word? Well, the…

“The word is….. chicken.”

“Am not!”

“I think ya are.”

“Well, you just wait.”

“I am waiting.”

“Hold on, gimme a minute…ok watch this.”

(“Please stay on the line, what is the nature of your emergency.”)

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: predicting human behavior, psychology of personality, self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine

Toosday -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘of new chapters and old reprints.’

May 2, 2017 By clarkscottroger

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

a gazebo at the end of a wood-plank walkway, chainlink fences on either side. two outdoor benches are on the left and one on the right, about halfway to the end. the bushes along the walk and the sky suggest a seaside location. (that would be a correct suggestion)

Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 of ‘Home and Heart‘ (a Sister Margaret Ryan novel) is out, available and can be read at jukepop. com

Thought I’d do a reprint post.

Hey, do you know that despite the fact that the Wakefield Doctrine does not base its inferences and predictions on the results of a ‘What’s your favorite color’, ‘If you could be any microorganism which would you be’ or even, “Someone has you cornered in a dark alley and, on the top of the garbage can next to you are three items: a hand mixer, a bent-corner copy of ‘Candide’ and…. what would you need to combine with the other two so that you could leave the alley as unscathed as you might desire?’

You know, those kinds of personality quizzes. The type of questionnaire that once was found in the back of magazines that never had an offer of subscription, lately is found on whatever secret pages in ‘the Facebook’ that give rise to postings that include the statements, “And then what happened will leave you shocked…” “And their comeback left them in…. (try shock)” or “I got (fill in the blank), that nearly always prompts one person to say to another, “Come here! You have to take this test, they so have your number!” (At the Doctrine we call these personality assessments, ‘club-shaped mirrors’.

(July 18, 2013)

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

I was ‘talking’¹ to Considerer last night.

me: “Considerings (the blog) has been real busy…you’re getting good reviews”

Lizzie: “It has been indeed! At some point I’m hoping to reach a tipping point and snag a few more members/followers/groupies… I have been pleasantly surprised, because I am trying to take your advice and learn rogerian (see my new tab when you get a chance)”

me: “damn, I hate to see you spending all your time re-inventing the axle! You have the Doctrine down to the point that you should be out there pushing the boundaries of (our) understanding.”

So I told our newest DownSpring, write me a question (about the Wakefield Doctrine) and I might use it as a launching point in an effort to present where the hot topics and current challenges are in our efforts to learn, use and have fun with the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers.

(here’s Lizzie’s Question):

‘How you came up with such a thorough Doctrine. And whether or not all the Doctrine views are ‘but only through the eyes of a clark‘, in which case,what might the other views think (or would they?)”

My Answer: ‘No’

The Wakefield Doctrine is predicated on the idea of personal reality. Simply put, the totality of your experience of the world around you is more than the aggravation² of objective facts, (who, what, where, why and when). Reality involves interpretation of the external ‘objective’ world. Nothing earth-shaking there. The Doctrine is concerned with, ‘how we relate ourselves to the world around us’. No one should have a problem with that as a starting point. The Wakefield Doctrine holds that there are three characteristic worldviews (those personal realities we spoke of just now). Since the Wakefield Doctrine purports to be a personality theory, we have three personality types. The difference between us and the mainstream personality systems that immediately appears, is that the Wakefield Doctrine is not particularly concerned with the individual (as a source of information to determine personality types) per se. Rather, the primary goal of a person employing our Doctrine is to infer which of the three worldviews are being experienced. If we correctly infer that a person is living in, (and has grown up and developed in), the personal reality that we call, ‘that of the Outsider’ then we have what we call a clark. (and so with the respective worldviews of the Predator and the Herd).

Where the work of the Wakefield Doctrine currently lies, is in our efforts to develop a language that can be understood by an individual (from) the perspective of any of the three worldviews.⁴
The three worldviews are different. They are different in terms of how they require a successful ‘inhabitant’ to relate to them. This is a qualitatively, fundamentally, scrumptiously different difference (between the three worldviews). Lets go with the bullet points:

clarks live in a worldview (in which) the individual is an Outsider. if you are an Outsider, what is the first thing that occurs to you to do? what quality/capability/capacity found in (a) human being is best suited to this task? And while you are engaged in this effort what would you fear and what would you hope for

scotts live in a worldview (in which) the individual is a Predator. what is the first thing that occurs to you to do? (now to expand on the line of reasoning we followed with clarks), how you describe the world to another person is a function of how you relate yourself to the world (that) you find yourself in, (we call this ‘how the worldview manifests’), from the perspective of having the world of the Predator to relate yourself to and, given the range of human expression available how would you be inclined to express yourself to those around you?

rogers live in the world of the Herd, the nature of the world for the person who lives in this worldview is relatedness what would it be like, to look around at the people and the places and the things and the activities and the past and the future in a context in which everything (and everyone) is connected in some way?

The challenge of creating a ‘common language’ lies in the fact that in languages there are sounds and there are concepts that are exclusively the domain of one’s context, environment …world and is not necessarily even possible in the other two worldviews. And it is surely these ‘exclusive/characteristic/native’ concepts, that are critical to understanding/acting in/feeling the true nature of the three personal realities. For better or worse, the Doctrine maintains that we are all heir to the three ways to experience the world, so our job is to learn, understand, identify with, feel and do something with each of these distinct, though somewhat in common worlds.

We talk about our initial efforts to understand/act/feel the three worldviews as acquiring fluency. Only reasonable, no? You have three cultures that have only the biology of their inhabitants in common and you want to create a language that allows productive interaction between the three…first thing you better do is become fluent in each native language. Then find common ground. Then…then! try and convince those stubborn bastards that not only is this a good idea, but they will be better off once they learn to save the lava-walking and the witch-burning for their once-a-year culture celebrations and stand acting like the evolved people that we want to hang out with (and we promise to stop mumbling and hoping to be forgiven).

Any questions? Outrageous acts? Overwhelming Feelings?

(oh yeah!! new Readers? clarks think…scotts act and rogers feel. If you have the kind of mind that enjoys playing with ideas and you have the sharpness of intellect that you will see when you look at Cyndi (the brilliant young clarklike female currently known as Cynthia) and Considerer and the others you might just get something out of this!)

1) actually I was typing…not one of the more effective ways for me to communicate

2) a rogerian expression³