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

October 20, 2014

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

the part of the boat where the name ‘Roann’ is? that’s the fo’c’s’le (sleep and eat there…work everywhere else)

So here’s the thing, I need to write a Post before I get pulled into my work-world. (I’m also trying to learn to become a better writer… so let me think out loud here, ok?) You, the Reader, have a couple of Questions at this point:

1. Why does he need to write a Post
2. What does he mean by ‘(being)pulled into his ‘world-world’
3. What does he mean by ‘work-world’ and
4. I don’t think with parentheses… what they hell is going on here?

Fine. Here are the Answers:

1) I need to write a Post for two reasons: a) I’m trying to write ‘the Wakefield Doctrine book’ and, for reasons beyond the scope of this Post, I need to practice my ‘voice’ in writing (has something to do with how I’m trying to come across to the Reader of the book, more conversational than informational… interesting instead of pedantic. Not that I’m ever in danger of being pedantic. 2) I find that I only have a certain ‘amount of words’ to write in a given day and c) I’m always afraid that if I don’t write frequently enough, I’ll forget how to

2) I mean that there is a schedule to create, tasks and appointments that are part of my workday and, for me, I need to ‘get into character’, (Jules Winnfield in that wonderful movie, ‘Pulp Fiction’), in order to have any hope whatsoever of being effective today. The moment I start to plan my day, I’m halfway into that world

3) I believe I just told you.

4) So, I need to get something down ‘on paper’ in order to satisfy my need to do whatever-the-hell-it-is-that-I-think-I’m-doing-by-writing-this-blog, today. Not as cool as waking up carnal or waking up and running 5 miles or waking up and meditating on a bamboo mat or waking up in the fo’c’s’le of an old Eastern rig (you actually wake up because it become quieter…. the engines are slowed down because you’ve arrived at the spot where you will ‘set in’ , i.e.putting the net out, which involves physical work in one of the most … bracing of environments. It’s not just that you’re waking up outdoors! Hell, cowboys and campers do that! It’s not even that you’re in a hostile situation….soldiers and hookers experience that… it’s that the place you are, the ‘middle of the ocean’* is a place that you have no, natural business being. You are, through your technology, floating in an alien world, a ghost/demon in the quiet dark world of the fishes that swim below. Totally at the mercy of the elements, (wind and temperature, sky and water). Waking up and going up on deck ( the fo’c’s’le of an Eastern rig is in the bow, the foremost part of the boat and is below decks, so you need to climb a ladder to get outdoors). Working on deck means ignoring where you are and never for a moment forgetting where you are, very ….special way to wake up to a workweek.

Today’s Post title? Sometimes, all it takes is a wonderful song lyric to jumpstart a Post, ya know?

 

* for the most part, at least in the context of the Atlantic Ocean fisheries, you’re not really in the ‘middle of the ocean’… you’re on the left edge, the Continental shelf, to be somewhat technical…. the depth that you fish in is relatively shallow, maybe, 600 feet versus 6,000 (the shelf drops off very sharply…well, yeah just like a shelf…google it)