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

Una on her Friday walk, being chased by Autumn
This landscape format photo is divided into thirds. The far left third is simple: a car’s windshield in the top half and dashboard in the lower half. The dashboard is a smooth grey surface that shows a faint reflection of the windshield above it. There is a matte-shiny strip of silver metal running on the horizontal along the lower edge of this grey expanse. Through the glass of the windshield (which has an odd shape, like a half-rectangle with dreams of being a circle) we see trees standing against a sky that is curiously devoid of color or detail. There is a blurriness to the leaves (green and yellow) that conveys a sense of motion. For reasons not available in the photo, it’s not clear if it’s us moving past the trees or the trees fleeing something we cannot see.
The right third of the photo is black. No features, reflections, hints at activity or the existence of a clue to it’s nature. Black. Dark. A void of both color and feature.
The middle third of this landscape format photo is where our story begins and ends.
Where the black from the right meets the light from the left we see, in the foreground, the silhouette of a dog. Una. Like one of those optical illusions that insist there are two distinct shapes, all you have to do is decide which you want to believe in and… there it is!
We see a dog shaped by the darkness, a pointing nose slightly concave on the top, a sensuous curve along the lower edge, a prominent chest.
We see Una shaped by light from the windshield, the end of her nose a shiny chicklette, the lighter brown of her eye brows and below that, her eye. (This being a profile, there is still much we must take on faith). She looks forward, and, within the half globe of her eye, a smaller curved square of reflected light.
Her expression is not casual. It is focused on the road ahead and decidedly not on the scene to her immediate right.
To her immediate right, and in the background, (of this middle third of the photo), is the slightly slanted rearview mirror. Attached to the exterior of the passenger door, it affords a view of what is behind the car. In fact, the lozenge-shaped reflection shows the sky and the road that the car is moving away from.
(Pat B. suggests that this is the source of the concern in Una’s eye. I do not totally disagree.)

Hey! It’s Saturday and this is the Ten Things of Thankful.

Simple enough premise: write a list of ten things (people, places or things, dogs, cats, the ambient temperature, the change of seasons, the result of the people in our lives, the institutions that impact our days and memories of those who are no longer physically present. you know, those things.)

Format: ten (or more, or less) comprising a list, a recount, a story or random reminiscence.

1) Josie Two-Shoes for the care and attention she puts into getting this opportunity out there each and every week. I say ‘opportunity’ simply because participation in the TToT is open to any and all who might encounter, follow-up on a rumor or decided to put the scary bloghop stories they heard as young bloggers to rest, “…and once the English woman gathered eight of the best writers she could find, a message appeared, without a return address, that said, ‘Watch your host demographics, Missy’ and, out of nowhere this new(ish) blog, the Wakefield Doctrine showed up on the doorstep, and, like the character Meatloaf played in ‘Fight Club’, he just wouldn’t go away until they invited him to be the 10th host.”

2) Phyllis and Una (my not that weird a person credentials)

3) ‘caught-up’ with old friends* at the Finish the Sentence Friday bloghop

4) Friend of the Doctrine, Christine, posted a photo on ‘the Facebook’ that made me smile** She was kind enough to allow me to post it here. And, yes, she was, in fact, one of the original co-hostinae and no, I will not indulge in the obvious joke.***

photo courtesy of Christine Woodruff

October 2017

5) ‘Finish the Sentence Friday is actually the first bloghop I participated in here in the blogosphere. Back then, it was an exciting time and, with a keyboard full of parentheseseses and an extra italics pencil**** I was made to feel welcome by the real people who hosted it. That being a total bonus, seeing how then, as now, I am driven by the Doctrine for which I am eternally grateful (number 6)

6) the Wakefield Doctrine. As I appear to be inferring in Item 5 (or alluding to, not really sure which is more better the word.*****) the Wakefield Doctrine has provided the energy, the nerve, the disregard of my normal tendency to avoid the spotlight, all in the service of telling people about our little personality theory. It (the Wakefield Doctrine and it’s promulgation) is nothing less than a passion.

7) Anyone who has only one (or two) Grat Items, would enjoy seeing it ‘in print’ but doesn’t have the time to write a whole post around it (unlike some writer’s I could mention)… send it in as a Comment and I’ll post it here. (If you don’t mind the ‘weird by association effect’  lol) We have a Grat

 7) I am thankful for you – Clark! (from Phyllis)

8) the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules)

9)

10) Secret Rule 1.3

* yeah, I know… a clark ‘catching up with old friends’ image: standing adjacent to a group of people who are laughing and talking amongst themselves, except…. the clark is almost totally facing the group¹

** who said ‘two worms on the sidewalk a day after a rain’? ²

*** famous story about her family’s first (or second year) at the farm

**** why yes! it does look like a carpenter’s pencil, except it has a triangular profile and the lead is red(ish)

***** ok, lets check. Why you’re completely correct! I totally go to the dictionary when I write posts and am comfortable with that because, well, it’s one of the scant and questionable advantages of being a clark ³ infer v allude   ( allude: ‘To refer to something indirectly or by suggestion’   infer: To introduce (something) as a reasoned conclusion; to conclude by reasoning or deduction, as from premises or evidence’ (courtesy WikiDiff)  gonna go with ‘just like the Doctrine says!’)

1) well, sure, he sorta keeps watch on the rest of the room, but still, almost totally facing the group

2) well, no, your little metaphor is not inappropriate, in fact it is kinda effective as one of the First Order identifiers of clarks is the ‘pressed lip smile’ ..you know what that looks like (‘desire restrained by caution’)

3) well, its the thing about how we all have a thing/quality/characteristic, or perhaps it’s better to say that the reality we experience the world from, conveys certain qualities…. in any event, clarks have no self-consciousness whatsoever about not knowing stuff, hence the looking up of words (rather, the mentioning of looking up words and such)

this week’s music