Month: January 2018 | the Wakefield Doctrine - Part 2 Month: January 2018 | the Wakefield Doctrine - Part 2

Finish the Thought Friday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

January 20, 2018 By

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

Today is Saturday and so we’ll hasten to complete a Finish the Sentence Friday post and then write us one of them TToT posts.

Last week, as you will recall, we combined our participation in the two bloghops into one long, and somewhat perplexing (to some of the newer Readers), post. The thing is, Kristi and Kenya and them, have altered the format and so, each Friday the ‘theme’ is different. Which should be an interesting change. Unlike winter. Sorry, getting ahead of myself. (Ayiiee, when you consider the theme of this week’s FTSF, and that last sentence, surely you recoil in empathic horror or lean-forward in identification with the conundrum I almost put myself into… have I lost the thread?  Good! Back to the intro).

This week the theme is Stream of Consciousness (in general) and our feelings towards Winter(specifically?) Here, let me let Kristi tell you, I have to go find a timer…

In the new format, which I host with Kenya from Sporadically Yours, each week is a little bit different. Week three of each month (this week), is a stream-of-consciousness post where you write for five minutes (or more) and just post. That’s it.

And yeah, yeah, yeah… I ended up adding some photos because I couldn’t NOT add them, but we promise, you’re free to edit as you’d like but editing is unnecessary.

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.

OK, I got the timer… not ready?  no problem I’ll wait…. (Why no! I don’t think that ‘preparing to engage in a stream-of-consciousness activity’ is contradictory. Have you talked to a clark recently? lol  Old joke: Q: “How can you tell when a clark is engaged in stream of consciousness? A: “His/her lips move.”)

Some of you might be thinking, ‘Did they just imply that they need to prepare for writing a Stream-of-Conscious post? Isn’t that kinda self-defeating?

Yes and No* lol

So I have my timer ready and, in case this ends up too jabberwockerish, I’ve put a photo at the top of the Post that says it all.

(go)

There is nothing I enjoy about Winter. The photo above illustrates its nature better than I can describe it: cold, life arresting and yet taunting in what it is that it (Winter) holds in its inhospitable grasp.

alright!  What 4 minutes left? damn!

hey! wait… this just in. Una enjoys the snow! And, now that I think of it, so did Bella and Ola. So it is not that the season itself is bad, it’s simply that I am not inclined to embrace its character and nature. I had a video up last weekend that shows how much fun Una had with the snow. (link here).

Boy, my five minutes have about lapsed. I got a feeling that I do not want to reflect on the implication of that! lol

So this week, my Finish my Thought Friday is: ‘…because Una enjoys the snow.‘

But now that I think of it, she enjoys all four of the seasons. That’s why she’s my role model. Una, as do her kind, has a natural appreciation for ‘what is’ as opposed to ‘what it should be/might be/supposed to be’. That’s not a bad reminder to me today when it’s too damn cold outside to remember that I’m able to go there and prove how right I am about that assertion and what a total gift that is. And, since it’s never too late to engage the present, I will stop with the stream of conscious writing and try to have a stream of present day.

Don’t forget to stop by the others (to my figurative right, left and above)… there you’ll find insight and reflection that will surely carry through your weekend.

 

*hey! one of the earliest tests for determining if a person is a clark is found in the simple question: “How much is Two plus Two?” a roger answers “Four” without the slightest hesitation because, well, that’s the correct answer. a scott might say “Four” or he/she might reply, “Who wants to know?” a clark? we’re inclined to answer, “uh, under what circumstances?”

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Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine-

January 18, 2018 By

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

 

Six Sentence Story time!

zoe, she say, the word this week is ‘RIPPED’.

(Yes, we’re trying something that might be fun this week. The ‘we’ being me and ‘Girlie on the Edge‘. I will, in fact, be coy and leave it at that!)

RIPPED

Post offices, easily the most ubiquitous symbols of modern culture, manage to project an air of civic order in even the smallest of villages by the simple expedient of having a lobby; often merely a wide corridor between ‘outdoors and in’, it provides a place to stand and look into tiny windows on the doors of the mailboxes inset in the wall, a key to which is as much, (if not more), credential of citizenship as any wax embossed document.

A man, his worn suit a tapestry of the echoes a life’s potential and it’s inevitable disappointments, stepped back and held the door as Starr Diamond approached the inner lobby, the angle of his body sketching an archaic (and very unconscious) bow as he waited for her to pass. The young woman, wearing clothing that clearly would require access to the internet if desired by any the inhabitants of the small town, moved with the grace of youth past the man and, in a gesture that resonated within only the deepest most primitive parts of the brain, turned to face the man as she passed through the entrance.

Sliding the green Certified Mail form (Part A), ‘Margaret Ryan’ showing through the fingers of her right hand, along with the Certified Mail (Part 2), across the counter, Starr announced to the woman opposite her, “I’d like to send this letter, Certified Return Receipt, please.”

Edwina Fulton accepted the envelope without looking beyond the Piaget resting on the young woman’s wrist and, with movements as graceful and automatic as a pianist playing Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 16 in C, removed the thin white strip from Part 2, placed in on the green form, ripped the lower half of the white form (Part 2), fed it to a machine that tasted then spit it back, red ink saliva a circle on the receipt.

Accepting Starr’s five dollar bill, she quickly made change and pushed it, along with the receipt to the young woman; inspired by the simple and sincere ‘Thank you’, Edwina Fulton wrestled her winter-roughed lips into a smile that, like a child’s first ‘A’, found in a box in an attic, wrinkled and smudged, nevertheless conveyed that feeling, from a long ago time in life when hearing a ‘Thank you’ made a woman feel good.

 

 

 

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TToTListicle Friday -the Wakefield Doctrine- “…well, because the only effective treatment for aging is novelty.”

January 13, 2018 By

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

‘Ascending and Descending, 1960, by MC Escher’,
I will not even try.
Wait a minute! Sure I will! This is the refrigerator wall of my efforts to develop skill with the writing thing. So here goes.
Escher’s drawing is of a rooftop staircase of what seems a castle or otherwise a building with medieval features. The tiles on the two roofs that show appear to be of clay, the type we associate with Spanish architecture. This is re-inforced by the clothing of the figures in the drawing; they are wearing what might best be described as cowls. But we need to come back to the figures, we have to deal with what they appear to be doing.
In the drawing our perceptive is from above and the right corner (the picture is essentially square). The figures are walking on a staircase that is built around a central, square opening. Perhaps it is a courtyard, but we cannot see down into it, only the far wall of the interior space shows and it has windows and so we assume an interior courtyard.
The staircase is in four equal length sections, ninety degree angles at each turn (sorta) but one corner, the upper right in the drawing, has an open tower affair. The staircase passes through and under this structure.

 

Not much time! A lot to do! Two, (not one, two…count them…two!) bloghops to combine into one!

This week we attempt  to combine the TToT with (the re-formatted) Finish the Sentence Friday. ‘Thank you, Josie Two-Shoes;  ‘mercie, Kristi and Kenya.’

Surely all Readers are saying, ‘Hey! Doctrine! This particular juxtaposition of bloghops, she is a lead pipe cinch, N’est-ce pas?’

No, it is not the aforementioned striking crania with el plomo tubing. I broke one of my personal secret rules and went and looked at what them cats at the FTSF be submitting for posts. ayiiee! not just text and photos (we do that!) but full-on illustrations, multiple fonts, cartoons and insightful entries.  But …but! on the plus side, they are using the same alphanumeric system and they put their ‘3s’ after they ‘2s’ just like everone else.

So, on with the Post: A list of my favorite things for which I’m grateful.

(Apology to Kristi and them, I had high hopes for a dual column post, TToT on one side FTSF on the other. Then I could (in this dream post) run parallel lists, side-by-each and it would be (this) juxtaposition that would surely inspire me to reach the heights of blogamadhi* Alas it was not to be as I could not figure out how to work the photos in and the photos are one of my favorite things.)

oh, yeah…. once you’ve read through this and provided you haven’t sworn off reading blogs, click on the ‘Listicle’ link and join the fun over there and, of course, at the bottom of the page is the link to the TToT. Speaking of which…

TToT

1) the Wakefield Doctrine.

2) the blogosphere (…. so, the weather here has totally taken a turn for the vastly improved!)  photo? sure!)

“Una on a non-snow covered lawn”
(Landscape orientation)
A photo of Una sitting in the backyard near the garden, she is facing away from the camera, standing on guard against any threat from the woods.
Two-thirds of the scene is week-old pea soup-green lawn. In the center of this we see the ‘n’ and ‘a’ of ‘Una’ in frozen-dirt brown contrasted with the frozen green of the surrounding grass.
The top third of the scene are the woods that surround the yard. Like green sails frozen by a sudden wind, the branches of the pine trees seem caught in motion, bending from right to left. Throughout the background are the telephone pole trunks of the trees and just a few patches of non-dark let us know there is a sky above and houses beyond the trees.

3) lifeforms (human) / lifeforms (canine) See above….

4) music as an emotional touch-point Currently listening to Pink Floyd (will attach at bottom)

5) treehouse(s)

‘The treehouse and the bridge.’

6) (a) Book of Secret Rules (which could alternatively be identified as a: Secret Book of Rules)

7) Graviteers and Sixers

8) Sunday Supplement is a chance to see how the day feels (or offers to feel or, more to the point for some us, how we might relate ourselves to the world around us on this here Sunday here.) Of course all the Posts since that day in June of ‘aught nine have been efforts to explore that very question. That being said and seeing how I mentioned ‘music’ and ‘philosopher’s stones’ in the same post, lets just ask Mr. Clinton! (George, not Bill,  lol)

9) Sunday Supplement well, the weather has been fair, but cold. Did someone say, ‘Too cold for dogs?” Ha!

10) Secret Rule 1.3

Listicle

[reference 1] I almost always go to my favorite Latin phrase, ‘sine qua non’. This is very much a literal truth. I started this here blog here in order to promote the ‘theory of personality’ of the Wakefield Doctrine. It was both reason and motivation. (You know those old photos of elderly couples surrounded by children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and how, if you look very carefully at the faces of the people you see: ‘We’re still together’  and ‘I love my parents so much’ and ‘They seem to be so happy, I can sit still for one photo’ and finally, ‘Who are these old people, family I guess I can sit for one more photo and text while I wait’…Like that.)

[reference 2] the place (for me) where potential can become (virtually) actual. This is not as tail-eating as it might seem on first blush. Here in the virtual world, which in no way is confused with the ‘real’ world (except that its comprised of real people doing real things in their own locations), I’ve found the context in which I’ve been able to develop several interests that I had not previously been aware of having, the best example is writing. (ya know?))

[reference 3] perennial list item: dogs in general, Una in particular. (Observant and/or rogerian Readers might, at this point say, “err… you also mention humans. A list that itemizes is good, a list that expands on the qualities and characteristics of each item is better. So, while you have expanded on the canine constituent, what’s the deal with a human ranking co-number three on this list?”)

[reference 4] Music is a thing I like, as gravity is a quality of the earth that I appreciate. Speaking for myself, music is surely the closest I will get to possessing a ‘philosopher’s stone’. Anyone can work hard, we all have an innate capacity to endure hardship, especially in service of a greater good; yet while it is the iron that provides strength, it is gold that shines.

[reference 5] My wife Phyllis (see reference 3) is a person of that rare combination of a childlike imagination (surely the best kind) and practicality. She knew that a treehouse would be an asset to the family unit. And so we have a treehouse.

[reference 6] Now this is what makes the blogsphere the wonderland/asylum that it (imo) is… I would tell you what the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) is, but the title is about as useful as titles get. What it does, that’s the part that makes it awfully fun. Ask anyone at the TToT.

[reference 7] I participate in a daily, (except for Sunday), bloghop called the Gravity Challenge. We all send in a photo of the readout of our scales (whatever portion thereof we chose) and enhance our individual efforts by our participation. Six Sentence Story is zoe’s weekly bloghop.. muy benefito.

[reference 8]  (sorry… today’s still Saturday) OK! Listicles and Listiclae you can come back now, it’s Sunday! Still references between the two lists, however. You’ll find the music above and the rationale here: The idea that ‘the day’** has the last word on our emotional state is one that is enthusiastically debated here at the Wakefield Doctrine. The reason is that the underlying determinant of ‘how our day is going’ is found in the answer to ‘how do we relate ourselves to the world around us’. The key here is ‘ourselves’ not simple ‘relate to the world around us. (More to follow in reference 9).

[reference 9]  (nope, still Saturday…stop by tomorrow)

[reference 10] The first of the Secret Rules found in the BoSR/SBoR and it would apply to a Listicle as much as it does to the TToT. The Rule says, {in part}: the completion of a list [o]f Ten Items (or more, provided terminus item is anticipated and thus identified) is, in and of itself an Item and (op.cit) may serve in said list. [‘Principle of Anticipation as Justification’ et.al.]

 

 

 

* not a ‘real’ word

** the circumstances, not public and private, objective and subjective solid and illusionary that comprise our description of everything (that appears to be) outside our heads. ya know?

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Six Course Lunch -the Wakefield Doctrine-

January 11, 2018 By

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

This is the Six Sentence Story, not the Six Course Lunch. A bloghop that Friend of the Doctrine zoe (and her companion Joules) host each and every Thursday and invite you to join in the fun.

The theme is a simple one. Write a story that involves the prompt word and keep it to six sentences. No more or no less. Semi-colonizing inadvertent over-population of words, descriptions, phrases and other necessary elements is permitted, if not officially condoned.

Regular Readers of the Doctrine’s contributions to the Six Book Library will take note of the photo at the top and think, ‘Ah! We’re going to get a scene from that soon-to-be-the-surprise-bestseller, ‘The Search for the Missing Starr’. And they will be correct.

Wage

I spent a couple of hours, before meeting Haley for lunch, in my office working on the books; seems that while the wages of sin may be death, the dividends it pays out aren’t half bad. Desiderata Detection and Conflict Resolution Services, LLC was growing nicely; as I locked the office at noon, I smiled at the memory of Edwin St.Pierre, an ambitious cop with the Providence PD saying, as we waited for a class at law school to start, “If I had it all to do over again but still had to deal with criminals, I’d either go into private investigation or get an MBA and head to Wall St.”

My soon-to-be ex-wife was meeting me at Capriccio’s which was for Providence’s legal and financial community, the place to be seen; it was the place to: close the deal and make millions, hammer out a plea bargain and keep the underworld happy, and the guaranteed tipping point in any romantic evening. The interior design looked to be by ‘Testosterone, Flowers & Muscle, Ltd’.; if the dark wood paneling, burgundy carpets, brass-studded leather furniture and chandeliers that weighed more than a riding mower didn’t make an impression, the maître d’ in his tuxedo and pencil mustache would be more than happy to, ‘letcha know the score‘.

Haley was in her favorite booth and I held back, enjoying the sight of her working the room, which with her incredible charm and charisma mostly consisted of crowd control, as half the women and ninety percent of the men interrupted their lunch, ‘just wanted to stop and say hi’.

My pleasure came at a price in that seeing her always made me re-discover an empty place in myself I didn’t know was there; I loved the feeling because she’d show me what it was I was missing and I hated it because, before I met her, I didn’t know anything was missing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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TToFreeze -the Wakefield Doctrine-

January 7, 2018 By

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

‘The sun blazing in futile effort to warm the earth, the sky a distant blue’ (landscape orientation) Along the bottom third of the photo is a road on the left and a snow-covered farm field on the right. The field is marked by a wire fence. The wire is invisible in the photo, the posts are not. They are stuck into the earth, forming a row running from the bottom to the middle, disappearing into the horizon as fences are so well disposed to do.

 

 

An almost wordless Post. (…for the moment).

(a day or so ago):

 

(insert wavy line effects here)

(c. 2013)

This has been a Ten1 Things of Thankful Nearly-Complete post. Thanks to Josie Two-Shoes for keeping this thing going and to L. Lewis for the starting this thing back, like more than three years ago.

 

 

1) Phyllis, the Wakefield Doctrine, the Book of Secret Rules (the Secret Book of Rules), the Graviteers, modern technology, Una and SR 1.3…. naturally

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