Month: January 2018 | the Wakefield Doctrine Month: January 2018 | the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine- “The Factotum of the blogosphere.*”

January 27, 2018 By

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

“Bella. She could fly when the mood struck her.”
She was Phyllis’ dog (as Ola was mine).
As much as dogs are referred to as being God’s gift to humanity, Phyllis (as Bella’s alpha) stood by her with a selfless dedication that such gifts deserve but don’t often receive.
(Landscape orientation)
The background of the photo is familar and out-of-focus, to no ill-effect. Halfway up is the green with brown (of pine needles) lawn. The top half is of the woods that surround the lawn. Fuzzy small pine trees punctuated (from right to left) with the dark vertical bands of tree trunks of the taller trees. A humble spectrum of colors suggestive of the red shift that indicates an object receding at great speed.
Speaking of speed.
Bella is captured (by the camera) mid-leap, mid-air as she catches an orange frisbee.
I believe (correctly or not) that I once read that Picasso was (in one phase or another) attempting to depict motion by presenting a series of ‘flattened’ images.
Bella appears, at first glance, to be a two dimensional image. However the focus is quite sharp on her, especially in her midsection. Only then do we realize that what we thought was merely an out of focus background is motion, a trick if the eye often experienced In that secretly paradoxical way when watching an object move against a static background.
Bella was quite the dog.

 

“…since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,” (Shakespeare’s ‘Omelet’ Act 2 Scene 2)

Best take the Bard’s advice and get this done.

 

1) Phyllis

2) Una

3) the Wakefield Doctrine

4) *(lol) The fun of the internet and the ease of accessibility it affords us to all sorts of things, including but not limited to a music video of a famous aria, complete with (translated) libretto.

5) bloghops:

Finish The Sentence Friday  with Kristi and Kenya and a bunch of very talented writers killing the Photo Friday

Six Sentence Story Zoe  speaking of ‘the soul of wit’ these guys rock the micro-flash fiction

the Ten Things of Thankful Josie and them

6) our host Josie Two Shoes

7) **Available Guest Grat Item.**
(If there is anyone reading this post who likes the idea of posting items of gratitude but, for one reason or another is not able to put together an entire post, send it in as a Comment and I’ll copy-paste it here.)

8) Sunday Supplement

Guarding the home and waiting for summer. Una watches the woods sleep.
(Landscape orientation)
Alternate title: ‘Of triangles and parallelograms’
The top half of the photo is of our backyard, which is separated from the pine woods (‘fill-in’ green along the top edges of the photo). The separator of sickly-green lawn from lush, left-alone pine trees is a rail fence. Two parallel rails connected by round posts.
At the bottom of the photo is the corner of the deck off the back of the house. In front of this corner sitting on the grass, with her back to the camera, is Una.
She the the only solid color in the photo. Solid (but shiny) black. Her ears form a v, almost like the notch on an arrow that the string sits in, prior to being launched at a target.
Kinda apt, no?

9) Sunday Supplicant (ask nice, now)

10) Secret Rule 1.3 (op.cit.; “…[t]he completion, either approaching or realized of a list of Ten Things constitutes a legitimate item (for said list) and may, achronistically, be appended , placed in or other{wise} be included on said list, (Loc. cit. TToT, 01-27-2018)

 

 

Click and join us…. really, go ahead!

 

 


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

Phinish the Photo Pfriday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

January 26, 2018 By

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

Today we join Kristi and Kenya at the newly revamped Finish the Sentence Friday bloghop. The primary change was to provide a different ‘theme’ or prompt, each week. There’s a chart out there that Kristi put on the group’s page on ‘the Facebook’. It tells one what needs to be done, wordistically-speaking.

So this week it’s… (hold on, let me do a copy paste)

Finish the Sentence Friday is a link-up where writers and bloggers come together to share their themselves with a particular prompt (different formats each week of the month). If you’d like to participate, join our Facebook group. Link up your prompts below! Please no “link dumping.” If you include a link, comment on other posts.

 

Photo Share Friday – share a photo and share the story behind it.

So.

The story behind the photo.

This photo is, in a very real, yet quite imaginary sense, my very own: Wardrobe (CS Lewis), Tornado (L Frank Baum) Rabbit Hole (Lewis Carroll). The people in the photo are the namesakes of the central idea that brought me to the virtual world: the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

The Wakefield Doctrine is a perspective on the world and the people around us. It is easy to learn, fun to use and available only to those with the kind of curiosity that welcomes new ideas and the intellect to permit major league suspension of disbelief.

The people in the photo? They are the people from which we derive the three personality types1 of the Wakefield Doctrine. Before we go any further, I will state un-equivocally: the Wakefield Doctrine is gender, age and culture neutral. As it happened, the people around which the concept of the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers took form were three guys by the name(s): clark, scott, roger.

As with any personality type schema, the names are markers, the characteristics of the three types is where the fun (and usefulness) are at.

I’m thinking, ‘OK, the instructions for this week are clear enough, ‘share a photo and share the story behind it’. Do they mean the story of how the photo came to exist or do they want to know what the photo represents, symbolizes or simply ‘why this photo’.

Gotta go with Door Number Three.

You know how all those personality type systems with their clever little surveys and tests and all are so much fun to take and even more fun to share? “”Honey? Come here, there’s this Quiz on the Facebook, it so has you down to a ‘T'”.  The Wakefield Doctrine is exactly like that, except different.

Being a perspective, rather than a thing, the purpose, use and value of the Wakefield Doctrine is aid us in our efforts to better understand the world and people around us. The Doctrine approaches this by challenging us to discover how a person is relating themselves to the world around them. It (does this) by proposing that we all experience the world, to a small but certain extent, on a personal basis. This is referred to as a ‘worldview’. The theory holds that we are, all of us, born with the potential to experience the world (and, very importantly), grow up and develop in one of three worldviews, that of the Outsider(clarks), the Predator(scotts) or the Herd Member(rogers). At a very early age we end up in one and develop our coping strategies appropriate to the character of that worldview.

“But! But what the heck does this have to do with CS Lewis or, for that matter, the blogosphere? What about that?”

Guess I should describe the path from a chance insight in 1981 and typing today’s post.
In the summer of 2009, I was driving around with a friend talking about life, reality and ‘the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers’. For whatever reason, I said, ‘This theory is so true and so much fun, I got to do something more with it’. My friend replied, ‘I agree and, in my work in counseling, I do in fact use the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers at times. But the name is not good, too college dorm. You need a better name.’ I then said, ‘Alright then. From now on it’s the Wakefield Doctrine.’ He laughed, ‘That’s an excellent name. What are you going to do with this Wakefield Doctrine?’ I replied, ‘Well, I guess I need to start a blog. Let the world know all about it.’

The weird part? Until that Saturday evening, my opinion of blogs and bloggers was the rather typical, ‘Sure, now what makes you think that you have anything to say on this blog that anyone would care to read? What you had for breakfast? Maybe your opinion on the state of the world! Yeah, right.’ The thing is, with the decision came a passion that I cannot recall experiencing before, at least not in public and in the daytime. I found that writing posts was the opposite of work. I couldn’t wait to start the next one.

Now the really weird part. I didn’t change. I was still a clark. (I will leave the fun of discovering the full implications of that statement to new Readers). Suffice to say, all of my insecurities, fear of scrutiny, fear of looking like an idiot, fear of meeting people, all stopped existing in the context of writing this here blog here. Seriously. I found a strength (I already used the ‘passion word’) that not only had me going beyond my lifetime-accepted limitations, I enjoyed doing everything and anything I could to get the story of the Wakefield Doctrine out to as many people and readers as I could. This ‘everything’, included joining my first bloghop. Yep! Finish the Sentence Friday (and the Facebook) was a threshold I crossed that brought me into contact with many I still value as friends.

…the actual photo? Taken in the mansion at Harkness Memorial State Park on the shores of Long Island Sound in the town of Waterford, Connecticut.

Guess that says it all. The photo I’m sharing this particular Friday explains how it is I’m here sharing this photo.

1) hey! I was down here getting ready to disclaimer whatever it was I thought I should, to head-off any criticism of ‘over-reaching’ or ‘being silly’ with the terms I use to describe the Doctrine. You know, something to the effect that ‘this is all based on anecdotal evidence and does not claim status as…’ then it struck me, ‘Well, duh, clark. Give the readers some credit, why don ‘cha?’ Ain’t a chi square, distribution analysis or bell curve within fifty metres* of your blog.’
I thank you, future Readers, for reminding me to stay with what makes this Wakefield Doctrine so unique and fun… the fun and uniqueness of it!

* lol, sorry, couldn’t resist

 

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

Six Sentence Story – the Wakefield Doctrine-

January 25, 2018 By

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

Mid-week already. Time to begin the wonderful/horrible, simple/impossible process of writing a Six Sentence Story what I can link up with zoe and them.

If I make it sound like an unpleasant chore, I apologize. The fact of the matter, this bloghop provides me with both lessons and encouragement in my quest to learn to write real good. The lessons are free. There are writer/participants here that, in no uncertain terms, have a way with words. (As opposed to have their way with words, which is more the case with Keith and D.Avery both of whom, metaphorically sitting in the back of the class and barely repressing laughter, are both on a first name basis with).

Not all that different from others with an ambition to improve my craft, I find myself reading the ‘Sixes’ of certain writers who weave their stories with an economy of words that leaves me shaking my head in bemused wonder. Like the proverbial ‘carrot-on-a-stick’ I have to stop myself from writing faster (and more) when I find the germ of an idea. Looking at what Paul, Irene and Deborah Lee write with such elegantly spare descriptions that nevertheless evoke emotion, I find hope. To balance it all I can go to Pat or Mimi or Josie, who have that really cool thing of writing what reads like people sound when they talk. However, every now and then I’m in the mood to burn down the house, in which case Reena and Neel are always there to help with the gas cans.

OK! limbered and stretched   …where the heck is that prompt word!! Bring it on! I’ll murdalize the puny……”

dry

“Don’t, don’t say anything.” Turning away, the woman felt a part of her heart reaching out to the non-specific allure of the night-shrouded landscape; the room behind her, it’s single, dim lamp growing from a cluttered desk, re-cast her face with a waning crescent shadow.

After a tempestuous marriage to a man of fire and will, the woman found her young-girl-desire for excitement replaced by the understanding that no one leaves a battlefield without scars.

When she first met the man, now behind the ramparts of a paper and book castle, his dry wit seemed the epitome of sophistication, his careful consideration of every decision and action, grounded maturity. In the first days of their growing connection, his emotional reticence grew into permission (and encouragement) to build a new scale model of the world that (many of us) keep hidden within, the better to safeguard our hopes and dreams.

“As an attorney and your husband, I’m compelled to advise you that the Doctrine of Mutual Mistake entitles us to share the blame; conversely it imposes a duty to make every effort to accept responsibility, surely we owe it to ourselves to try.”

 

 

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

Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine- “…of practical advice and insightful questions.”

January 23, 2018 By

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

So here’s the starting point (as found in this past weekend’s TToT):

Cynthia and Denise and I were discussing workplace applications of the Doctrine. And, to use one of the examples we were working on, lets say I’m in an interaction and feeling very stressed. I can stop, ‘circle around back and enter the situation through the rogerian (or scottian) ‘backstage entrance’. By doing so I have the opportunity, (knowing what I do about the realities of scotts and rogers) to get a sense of how the other person is experiencing the situation in question. Very often I discover that what they are doing that is causing me stress has little or nothing to do with me personally! Talk about taking a load off one’s shoulders. You really should try it.

Cynthia then commented with the following:

It’s rarely ever personal, is it? LOL. In fact, maybe it’s never personal. That would be in line with Don Miguel Ruiz who said to “never take anything personally” in is Four Agreements book. I wonder what Castaneda would have to say. Anyways, yeah, Ruiz argues that we’re all in our own “dream” (worldview) and that if we experienced life as they did, we’d know that it is never about YOU but always about THEM.

Followed by Denise’s question/inference:

Clarification please. When dealing with scotts for sure not personal, but it’s not personal with rogers? I don’t have Doctrine vocabulary words to express what’s in my head at the moment. With rogers, it will first be about them, how, whatever is going on in their interaction with us, affects them, the herd and or reflection thereof, yes?

 

That should get us going for a mid-week Doctrine post!

Quick refresher: The Wakefield Doctrine maintains that all of us are born with the potential to experience the world in one of three characteristic worldviews (personal realities): that of the Outsider(clarks), the Predator(scotts) and the Herd Member(rogers). At a very early stage, for reasons not yet understood, we settle into one of the three. The thing is there is only one predominant worldview and yet, ‘the other two’ potentials remain with us. When it seems like we’re being a scott when really we’re a roger, that usually is at a time of duress and is an indicator of a secondary scottian aspect.

One of the benefits of the Doctrine is found in the arena of self-improvement (the ‘third date’ of the new personality type couple…lol). Most people seek to become better…at whatever it is the perceive they are; mothers, workers, performers, thinkers and fighters. Natural. What can be unnatural (found in many other systems of self-improvement) is the belief that one needs to acquire, learn, borrow, imitate behaviors and other ways of interacting with the world in order to improve. The Wakefield Doctrine holds that it’s not necessary; that quality or characteristic you desire is already a part of you. It is simply not expressed.

Wait, I said that not quite the way I wanted. Remember the part about settling into the world of the Outsider or being left in the reality of the Predator or waking up in the land of the Herd Member? The predominant reality? Well everything that follows are our efforts to develop strategies to get through life. A scott learns to be quick, aggressive and not spend a lot of time in reflection, a roger sees a quantifiable world and knows he/she must study, be organized and deliberate. A clark… they kinda wing it. lol. No, the defining style of negotiating with the world and it’s people for clarks is grounded in the belief that knowledge holds the key.

In any event, my point about already having what you believe you are looking for, want to be more assertive? You have a scottian aspect. Need to be more detail oriented? Hello roger! You have what it takes to be the person you think you want to be. The thing is, you practiced a lifetime to be the clark, scott or roger that you are. So don’t be discouraged if you try to assert your inner (whichever) and it doesn’t work the first (or 21st) time. The main thing is that those characteristics are yours to develop.

Holy smoke! I totally got off the topic. (So much for the quick refresher).

So the Wakefield Doctrine is a perspective that can be especially useful in the workplace. The use of the Doctrine requires learning the character and nature of the three worldviews. Now before anyone leans back and says, “Great! Now I got to go read and memorize a bunch of charts and descriptions! At least the Oscar-Myers EOSH people have only four letters to learn to use it!” Allow me to say, don’t worry, all you need is the most cursory understanding of the three worldviews The scary thing about the Doctrine is that when you spot your first roger or scott or clark, in all probability they will proceed to put on a demonstration that will have you thinking, ‘Wait a minute! What are the odds that my supervisor/grocerystore clerk, teacher, friend, wife could be a follower of this blog?’

No, seriously. When you get to the point of identifying the three worldviews, I guarantee that you might feel a little creeped-out. With good reason, but not the way you think. I always warn people at this point, ‘If you get to the point that you can see the rogers and scotts and clarks in your world, there is a very strong possibility that you will not be able to not see them.’

You been told.

Ok to Denise’s question about the conflict between accepting that what a roger might be doing to you is not personal, while knowing that everything in the world of the roger is personal. My reply in the Comments:

everything is personal with rogers

if the coffee in the break room is burnt-tasting and stale, they will take that personally and seek someone whose fault it is or…. if there is a traffic accident and the highway is tied up….

… knowing that, makes it less a personal responsibility for us as clarks (and never let it be said that clarks shirk responsibility for…. everything but mostly the bad things lol) it is a way of short-circuiting our own autonomic entanglement… with a lifeform that is to emotions as a scott is to anything that darts away…. lol

 

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

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

January 21, 2018 By

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

‘Mare’s Tails’ cross the sky, bleaching the cold blue into a more human shade.
(Landscape orientation)
The lower third of the photo is a row of trees seen from a distance. The upper two thirds of the photo is sky.
The are a mix of deciduous and pines and such. The winter-bare deciduous trees are wiry clumps against the horizon, looking for all the world like clumps of nerves reaching towards the heavens. The pines, on the other hand, are more unimaginative and, so how, down-to-earth. Their branches, solid from un-fallen needles seem to reach out to the adjacent trees as if to offer support.
The sky started the day as clear, winter-cold blue. The kind of blue that there should be an ice cream flavor of…except people wouldn’t be able to eat more than a spoonful, being as cold as it is. The blue of a cold winter sky is as close to alien as you could hope to see in the regular world. It’s a blue that whispers ‘black and cold as outer space’ but when you turn to the person next to you to tell them, it goes back to be just a clear, blue sky.
Contradictorily, the clouds in the sky makes the blue more earthbound. The topmost layer in the photo are the familiar cottony white, clumps of clouds. Below them (and above the trees) is a band of clouds referred to as ‘Mare’s Tail’ squarish and flat-looking, their tops are sheared off and streaming to the left. Like a painter, bored with a composition, ran his brush across the canvas where the paint had not completely dried.

Thanks go out to Josie Two Shoes for once again having the light on in this little corner of the blogosphere. The Ten Things of Thankful (TToT) is an exercise in the cultivation of a perspective on life and the world around us that focuses on the experience of gratitude. So crank up them typeola machines and digitize your experiences of the good, the surprising and the un-expected what life life may have thrown your way this week.

1)  Lets use the lead photo as an example of how gratitude can be manifested in a reflection of a simple thing. I was going to say that my short years on a fishing boat left some useful insight into weather predictions and such, specifically the kinds of clouds that foretell of bad weather. (The most familiar of such is, of course, ‘Red skies at morning, sailors take warning. Red skies at night, sailors delight’ Although, when I think about the average commercial fisherman, I question the use of the verb ‘delight’. I mean, were I to have stopped in the middle of the last haul* of the day, the sun setting on a deck full of tired men, up to their knees in dead fish, point west and call out, “Hey fellas! Look at how red the sunset is! Isn’t it delightful?”)
In any event, I did a quick search of the term ‘Mare’s tail’ and the first return included a saying that I cannot recall hearing! “Mares’ tails and mackerel scales make lofty ships to carry low sails.” I am grateful for the internet. (Especially as a clark, for whom the internet is, like, the biggest used book and magazine store ever.)

2)  youtube for this week’s music vid from the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. Sometimes some things just sound right for the moment.

3) The FTSF bloghop. They’ve changed the format slightly, providing for a different ‘theme’ each week. This week is was ‘stream-of-consciousness’ (yeah, I know! ‘Come to papa!‘). In any event the ‘subject’ of this SOC was ‘Winter’ and so the photo:

Una’s Garden ‘Frosted Letters in frozen grass’

4) Keeping to the nature theme, squirrels anyone? (Tree Rats is one of my favorite ‘alternate’ name for our furry little woodland friends.)

5) Easy one: moderate temperatures this weekend. In the high twenties over night, maybe upper 40s during the day.

6) Una and Phyllis (of course)  ….hey! Phyllis just said that she and Una were going for a walk** this morning! I’ll save #7 for photos to appear later today of their adventure!

7) Photos are in from their walk!

 

Una on the bike path, as it runs through the Great Swamp Management Area (South Kingstown RI)

Phyllis and Una

 

8) the Wakefield Doctrine and the perspective made available being very fun and quite useful. On our call-in last night, Cynthia and Denise and I were discussing workplace applications of the Doctrine. And, to use one of the examples we were working on, lets say I’m in an interaction and feeling very stressed. I can stop, ‘circle around back and enter the situation through the rogerian (or scottian) ‘backstage entrance’. By doing so I have the opportunity, (knowing what I do about the realities of scotts and rogers) to get a sense of how the other person is experiencing the situation in question. Very often I discover that what they are doing that is causing me stress has little or nothing to do with me personally! Talk about taking a load off one’s shoulders. You really should try it.

9) ** a ‘walk’ walk, not to be mistaken for a ‘drive’ walk. The latter is what Una and I enjoy on Friday afternoons when the temperature is not damaging cold. Example from just this Friday:

10) Secret Rule 1.3 (everyone’s favorite Rule from the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules)

*  ‘last haul’  the work on a fishing boat of the type I was on, (at the time I was on it), consisted of dragging a very large net along the bottom of the ocean. At certain intervals the net is brought onboard, emptied and put back in the water behind the boat, which continues to drag it along the bottom. The sequence of bringing in the net is referred to as ‘hauling back’. The net is brought to the portion of the deck that is divided into pens and emptied out. The work was then to separate the fish into what we wanted (that had a value) and what was not of value. The money fish were ‘picked’ into bushel baskets and dumped into fish-holds below decks. That sequence of work would be referred to as ‘a haul’, i.e. ‘first haul’ or ‘last haul’ (of the day).

 

Click this and join in on the TToT!

 

Share
Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: ,
« Older Posts