Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
Our first dog, Ola.
(perfect illustration of the character of German Shepherds, ‘big smile, large teeth’)
We are participating in Kristi‘s bloghop, Finish the Sentence Friday. It is a simple enough premise; all (who would participate) are provided an incomplete sentence and are invited to make it whole. And in doing so, reveal our inner most thoughts and feelings about life and such. No, just kidding about that last part. (Not really. There is much to the view that writing ‘fiction’ is, at its core, always autobiographical, have but we the wit and imagination to connect very pale and far-flung dots. But that’s for another post.)
Oh, yeah, one thing before we start. From what I gather the word wish is valid as a noun and a verb. I surely concur with the other writers in the meaning, implication, inference and consequences of the word ‘wish’ as a noun. Not that I’ve read any posts yet. Were I do so I would surely push the keyboard away and be content with reading feelings and thoughts expressed with maturity and eloquence. But! since I haven’t… I will say that, when I consider the word ‘wish’ as a verb, I find a door I forgot was there.
This week’s sentence is perhaps one of the most open-ended of sentence fragments. I suppose I’d best start things off and, once the process is started, everything will come together;
“I wish…”
“…no! wait! that wasn’t my sentence.”
Thank you, thank you very much.
(Who doesn’t wish for the kind of talent and skill with words to be capable of writing something as inspired as the apocryphal* Hemingway six word novel, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”)
However, brevity being the soul of wit and Friday being …well, Friday. I will finish the sentence thusly.
“…that I’d the opportunity to understand earlier that a wish is a child’s pleasure and an old man’s remorse. It is hope without faith.”
ok! thank you Kristi! my! thats an up-lifting FTSF post!
lol… I will add that I am grateful for the opportunity to have had the experiences that allowed me to replace the verb ‘wish’ with ‘hope’. It makes all the difference in the world. Hope, combined with faith (lowercase very much deliberate), is all that I need to keep to the path that is best for me.
Not that I need reminding (’cause of the faith element, right?) however, I need only remember my first encounter with the concept of ‘Three Wishes’**. As childhood lessons go, it’s surely as fundamental a learning experience as counting and Santa Claus….( no, wait, counting has a practical value.)
In any event, I was a clever child (aka underachiever) and when ‘my turn’ came to tell my contemporaries what I would do with Three Wishes, my reply was, “My first wish would be to wish for all the wishes I wanted and they’d all come true.” Seeing the look of admiration of the faces (of those who would remain friends) and incomprehension on (those who would not), I twisted the thread within in a way that has taken most of a lifetime to un-twist.
Not that that’s a bad thing. I am, after all, typing this post in a comfortable home with a family and satisfying work. And …and! I’m at the end of the time allotted to spray-painting my psyche on the walls of our virtual town. So I will say, my wish is for you (collectively) and Kristi (directly, because….) to experience the most joyful and beneficial of holidays
* apparently there’s question as to who should be credited,
** you don’t want me to get on the tangent of the role and function of fairy tales as indoctrination of the very young… I mean, seriously. What is the point of allowing a child to believe in jinn or fairy godmothers or…or monkey’s paws1
1) the cautionary tale bookend to the lessons of myths and fairy tales…ayiee
About clarkscottroger
Damn Clark! You scare everyone away?
Very good FTSF :)
it was fun to write
I have truly missed your take on FTSF and you most definitely didn’t disappoint here tonight for me. That said hope you get all you wish for this Christmas and wish you a wonderful Christmas, as well as New Year, too ;)
my first bloghop (with you and Stephanie and Dawn and Kristi)… have a good Xmas
You are so awesome. First, I swooned at the photo of Ola. Shepherds must be one of the most gorgeous breeds, ever. I miss Chief (he was a white shepherd if you recall way back to way back then) but I love them all. We’ve been thinking of getting a dog and while I’d love a breed that sheds less (we could brush a medium-sized dog bunch of hair off of him daily I think), shepherds…well. They’re just regal. And silly. And the grin and the teeth. Anyway, I digress. OMG your brain. So I think about that tale of the Monkey’s Paw WAY TOO OFTEN. Like seriously, I think about it a lot, for somebody who heard the tale as a kid. My first wish too was that I’d get all the wishes I wanted! Great minds.
Interesting take on wish vs. hope, too. I hadn’t thought of that. I *hope* you have a very happy holiday too. I mean, just do. Have a happy holiday and all that, okay? ;)
Awesome finish to the open sentence. You never disappoint.
she was the best of all dogs… so, I’ve been wondering since I first encountered the story ‘the Monkey’s Paw’ whats the deal with the cautionary tales (Midas Touch, Monkey’s Paw et al.) if there ain’t no such thing as magic huh?
thanks for being such a positive role model for our people.
Funny seeing you here, Clark! Awesome!
Well this just about sums it all up, Clark – “…that I’d the opportunity to understand earlier that a wish is a child’s pleasure and an old man’s remorse. It is hope without faith.” Not much else to say after that, is there.
Wishing you and Phyllis a very lovely holiday!
yeah… this (the FTSF) was the first bloghop I participated in… (knowing how much I like the blogosphere-as-high-school metaphor) I suspect your grade point average got you in a different track* than I was in the ‘sphere
*this tracking, hopefully no longer employed in schools, was in effect when I was in junior high school… I was B4 (but half my friends were A1s even though we never had the same classes..)lol ah the things we adults do to make sure that children suffer as much as we imagine we did.
Many schools say they no longer track. But the truth is, it still exists, no matter what you call it.
never too early to learn about self-fulfilling prophecy.
I too used to watch Aladdin the Disney movie and think of what my three wishes were. It was super obvious to me that I would wish for everything with my first wish, for endless wishes to be granted me. Rules. Hope dashed.
Wish. Hope. Faith. The children in my life keep me fascinated with this word, wish, and I can’t help philosophizing. It’s endless.
Yes – wishes are now to be hope. I’m keeping that. Thank You – Ms