Month: March 2018 | the Wakefield Doctrine Month: March 2018 | the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 31, 2018 By

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

Una (world traveler) looks out from her private (and portable) cabin during a layover in Frankfort.’

A quiet sort of TToT post this week. A lot of the (potential) Grat Items piling up in my head are, in fact, of ‘the world virtual’. Prompted in no small part by the FTSF ‘hop of yesterday. It gave us licence1 to spend some time in the past, more specifically, the past here in the ‘sphere. Which is kinda where my head is at this morning. The blog post in question is from 2009. It was like, all of the fifth month I’d been writing this blog, but for reasons I’m just beginning to understand, it stands out in my memory. Phyllis asked something about the post, along the lines of how ‘everyone’ reacted. That triggered a total flashback episode, (do your own wavy screen), of the very early days, not something a clark is not naturally predisposed to do. Of course, the reason I started a blog was the Wakefield Doctrine.2 In any event, I think that the post was one of the thresholds necessary for me to cross that I might continue to write; like a clark.

So, I will get all referential3 and list what I remember as the path (or, like an adult returning to a childhood home town, I’ll point and insist (convincingly, it is hoped) that promontory, from which I jumped into ocean, was much higher than it appearss or that the walk to my old elementary school only looks like a single, sidewalked block.)

The thing about this blog, (and me and the internet), is that it was all driven by the Wakefield Doctrine. I was talking to a young clark yesterday, which is a treat (like getting the next-the-last-spelling-word correct) and I recounted an Easter story from my past that I often relate to other clarks. (The thing about the story is that, while everyone feels sympathetic, a clark will respond on a visceral level.) It was the Easter Egg hunt story.**

Okay, I jumped my formatting a bit. So, let’s try to get things back on track. So I wrote blogs ’bout every day in the first few years and, in the name of getting the Doctrine in as many people as possible, I got on ‘the Facebook’. Thats when I began to meet the remarkable people who I now count as friends. The aforementioned Finish the Sentence Friday bloghop was the first of my active participation with people in the virtual world. So, here’s one of my favorite photos5

So the rest is the present. I’ve been totally lucky in encountering only people of good intent. Interesting, when I first ventured out, I was all, ‘Lets see them try to attack and/or make fun of me and this Wakefield Doctrine.’ The thing was, they never showed up. I was, for a while, all, ‘Oh man! I’ve got to get better exposure. No one is challenging my on the efficacy or effectiveness of the Doctrine. I’m failing in my mission.’ Slowly, (am a clark, remember?) I realized that it is possible to hang out with cool people without the occasional ‘what the hell are you doing here, you don’t belong.’

Lets close this out. Una, she totally gets her own footnote.

 

 

  1. the founderess of this very bloghop, Lizzi Lewis who lives in the future, (well, relative to us, here in the States, she’s at least five hours ahead; if you get a text from the UK cap-lettering that there are Four Horsemen heading east, you’d do well to back up those old posts and clear your browser history) and in Great Britain. A typically un-assuming village by the name of East Hollandaise o’er Hardtack, in the Medium Low Counties (Village motto: ‘articles?! we don’t need any articles, any freshman at university could tell ‘ye that!’)
  2. call it the ‘sine qua non’ (yeah, go ahead, this is the Doctrine where, as Humpty Dumpty reminds us, words are our friends.) Or, if so inclined, get tangled* in the debate that this is a Doctrine blog or merely my blog about the Doctrine. I’d be willing to take either side.
  3. sometimes it seems like we’re all, ‘rogers are a pain in the neck’, but, as we know (if, that is, we’ve been doing our Wakefield Doctrine study) if it weren’t for rogers we’d live in a world without stable cultures, electronic devices, over-bearing laws and a judicial system. We’d totally be trying to remember how the ‘8 times table’ goes and hoping that the scottian designer of the airliner we’re riding in didn’t just spot the new intern and left the backup safety design to the clark who really thinks that couches and a bathroom for every passenger makes sense for transcontinental travel. In any event, rogers do this thing called a rogerian expression where they take a word and use in a way at once improper and totally amusing. Here click this to the page that includes a list of rogerian expressions.
  4. I am grateful for this story. It (now) elicits a feeling, an actual emotional feeling (lol) for my fellow clarks. Sure, I identify with clarks and see, in how they relate themselves to the world around them, myself and by doing so improve my-own-self. But I feel a love and admiration for them knowing that they got through events like this and are still fighting the secret fight to become a real person.
  5. Cynthia
    *
  6.  Una (top photo, of course!)
  7. Josie Two Shoes (if you realized how often I’ve had to go between ‘text’ and ‘visual’ to keep the formatting from careening off the page like a car in an old time movie, you’d be saying, ‘Well, at the heart of this post is the person who puts in the time and effort to make it available for those with too many words in their head.’ Thanks J.)
  8. THIS SPACE AVAILABLE!  (If you’re out there and have not yet participated in the TToT but really want to, send a Grat Item***
  9. Sunday Supplement
  10. Secret Rule 1.3

 

* the rhetorical equivalent of a nice, over-sized quilt used for mid-winter afternoon naps… ‘tangle’ isn’t always a bad thing.

** so, I was, like five years old and there was an Easter Egg hunt in Oak Bluffs. There was a large, rectangular field and on the street end all the children were lined up with their parents and families behind them and the Starter stood on the forward left edge. The eggs were, of course, up in the field which actually was mostly grass. I’d spent most of a sleepless night planning and rehearsing in my head how I might do best. For some reason, a reason now lost in the litter of a lifetime of memories, I started running before the official start. I got a pretty good distance before I realized something was wrong. (lol… yeah) I finally stopped and turned around.    ….they waited for me to return to the starting line.4
*** Subject to the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules), some restrictions may apply


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French Fried Friday -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘they’re saying, ‘anything goes this week…’

March 30, 2018 By

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

I best start with the cut ‘n paste from the ‘hop hostinae, Kenya and Kristi, thinkin I might not be explaining the ‘theme’ of this week’s FTSF blog post.

Hi all! We’re on tomorrow night (Thursday, March 29) at 10pm eastern where you can share anything previously written! Either re-publish something you’d like more eyes on, or re-use all or most of a previous blog post. Easy, right?

Just as a reminder – some websites may turn comments off if they’re older so be sure to turn them back on if need be (Kenya thought of this – it never would have occurred to me).

The linkup will remain live through Sunday evening and we hope to see… you there!

Link up with Kenya G. Johnson at Sporadically Yours: https://www.kenyagjohnson.com or with me (Kristi Campbell) at Finding Ninee: http://www.findingninee.com/

(By the way, it was only after I read some of the other FTSF posts did I understand the theme. Not sure how I lost my grip on a fairly simple concept, but this serves as an example of the relentlessly benign relationship that I’ve enjoyed since the day I stepped through my computer screen. The people I’ve been fortunate enough to come to know (and often consider friends) have all been like that, you know, the reminder that your fly is open (or slip is showing*) that is done so that not only are you immediately informed (and therefore can make a quick correction) but it is done in a way that only you (and your benefactor) are aware of.)

That was a bit of long side trip to what stands to be a totally insufficient introduction to my choice of Throwback Post.

In any event, as indicated, this post is from the first year of the Wakefield Doctrine blog and for reasons I don’t quite** understand, I always think fondly of it.

From December 27, 2009

oh man, what is it now?

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine. Sorry to dissappoint, but the Interview with the roger(Progenitor) is not complete and as such is nowhere near ready to Post. Sunday is a time when I try to get something/anything new in but was drawing a major blank until the name James Joyce flashed against my 3am brain and so we are going to walk to amateur experimental-writing land this morning. And by the way there is something weird about trying to write like this and yes I will tell you something you do not in fact know but the loss or surrender of most punctuation is really hard on the typing. Thank god for the occaisional period although I don’t know how many of them I have left but for some reason doing this Post the way I am I am mis-spelling alomst every third word I promise that I will spellcheck this thing and not put you throught that ordeal or misspelling everything in the name of an art for which I have no techniques be warned though I did look up EE Cummings before I started and at the first opportunity I know I will jam a reference to his stuff. My mother used to have an expression that went a little knowledge is a dangerous thing I think this is an example of what she meant although she died in 1979 and could not have imagined this particular form of acting without regard to justification. Although she (my mother) was a clark of the first order so I would bet that she would have no problem accepting the strangeness of this Post. We clarks are good at that we will witness the second coming and not show a reaction. But she was a clark in all the classic forms of expression you must allow for the time/culture she existed in which for my purposes and perception would be the 1950s through the 1970s. But as a clark she was the perfect selfless-to-a-fault mother and just in case there was any doubt about here type (clark, scott or roger) she has a 3rd grade school teacher. Hey no clark there. Anyway not sure how i got off on that tangent. Damd did i just lose capital letters? Oh well what can you do. so i was saying i brushed up on ee cumming because we all had the wednesday in spring 5th grade english class that started on the poetry and who did not like the phrase and the world was puddle wonderful? but the fun for me was that he did not need to use punctuation or even particularly spell things right and he certainly felt free to make up his own words. i never got much into that poetry thing then but like so much i am only now coming to appreciate things that i thought at a previous time i just did not have the time for. and maybe that is part of what this post is saying to me. while it is not uncommon to put things off, i am coming to an understand only now of how there is not a later for things to get done and as i look back i realise how much time i wasted. this is not a negative thought rather for me this realization produces in me the acceptance and will that whatever i might find of interest today i should and must invest all i have to invest in it now, not later. yeah, yeah i know kind of basic, mature adult looking at life shit. bear with me am filling up the page and can get out hopefully without a topic but no, i stayed too long. so i was talking with downspring glenn, who of course is a scott you saw his interview last week and we got on the subject of post writing and what to do when there is no topic. he is just a scott and as such is strongest in the here and now where all those people live but afterall all of us participating in this Doctrine thing are no more a pure form of our type than we are neither so as an evolved scott glenn is able and quite helpful in working on the development of the Doctrine at least as far as this current effort to bring it to the world. did I get off on a tangent? how the fuck could you tell? this stuff is probably harder to write than it is to read at least you can stop at any point an say yeah that was cute that was creative so when is there a point going to be made and maybe i will just check back in on tuesday or so. and btw i have no idea of what the appropriate music is going to be with this odd little post but if the cat smiles it will be what it needs to be. where was  i oh yeah, glenn and the discussion of topics for posts. he said hey why don’t you write about the differences between… and then a number of suggestions most sports as a vehicle for comparing clarks, scotts and rogers. i think he suggested baseball, football and golf i said sure that sounds like a good idea and then he moved on to compare the three stooges which he realized we had already done in person i think talking with downspring joanne who i want to thank for her efforts at working on the questionaire which no else is helpin on. damn i wish i still had itlaics. anyway glenns last suggestion was pick a person in the world that you really hate and tell them how much you hate them and why you hate them.  good idea. i hate glenn very much much and it is because he is so scottian at times that i don’t understand…ha ha got you going for a second huh? glenn it is strange how presentation changes everything. words are the point but how important is how they are arranged/laid out/presented/fuckin typed? apparently it makes all the difference in the world. so to complete this minor cycle in the overall arch of the post and my spelling is really going downhill, i hoep that this thing does not decide that spelloing does not matter as grammar and everything else seems to not matter. will do my best to hold on to the last shred of coherency  almost done. anyway since we always include some new information about the wakefield doctrine in every post. hey do they still do the prizes in boxes of cereal? i still remember the whole digging to the bottom of the box of frosted flakes looking for the prize that was invariably contained in some kind of white paper envelope that was sealed around the edges in a most peculiar way. the lesson? oh yeah hazel used to use that expression the oh yeah thing jeez what a not to be described yet total energy black hole that hole my hazel relationship thing was. even allowing for the first relationship effect which is cheating here because if you bring up a significant life event i don’t think you should try to control it by laying a in-retrospect i certainly understand what i …blah blah blah but it was the focal point of my existance while it was happening and for too many years after it was over. wtf where the hell am i? where are my caps, my parentheses, jeez louise it is a lot easier to get lost in this rather tedious technique than it is to get out. must find paragraph key…i now it is here somewhere none of the keys have letters anymore shit try something hit any k)y ok {? maye hit1234 nah numbers \

Ah! I’m out! Thank you jesus! I am out of that, that, a lot funnier to read than to write, thing. Whew, man I thought that would never end.
Hey, plenty of white space filled in…maybe I can just tie up a few loose thoughts, find some music and put this bad boy in the category: ‘Keep one as Proptype, cancel production run”

Damn, what little typing skills I had, seem a bit messed up by this little experiment. Alright loose end tying time, (in no particular order):

there was a person by the name of hazel; my mother was, in fact, a 3rd grade teacher (quite a good one, but she was a clark); hey I gots italics!; golf is a clarklike sport; football is scottian and baseball is the rogerian sport.

Alright. Now for some music….(man! I just ‘previewed’ this Post, jesus christ what a mess! am thinking of putting music first, be weird but that really, totally is a meaningless term at least for today.)  Nah…better put it down here, someplace for the Reader to run to:

So…

Will not leave without a Goodnight to our friends in Slovenia…hey guys…

* or whatever is considered a female-istic wardrobe malfunction these days… (yeah, my use of that expression stencils ‘MID TWENTIETH CENTURY’ all over this thing)

** I think I’m beginning to get a sense of what it is about this post that I enjoy/that resonates with me (to be cont’d)

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Six Score Story -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 29, 2018 By

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

This is the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

The theme: story-writing. The rule: six and only six sentences.

Denise is the host and she will be reading each story.

Seeing how she’s only recently taken over the director’s duties from zoe, if you haven’t yet joined in, this is, perhaps the best of all possible weeks to do so. You know, ’cause she’s settling into the role of hostinae, and hosts are always looking for new participants.

Anyway, for us here at the Doctrine, we’ve be hittin the genre for inspiration.

So, if I may, a Six Sentence Story (in the genre of), ‘Historical Fiction’.

 

Vent

“General Grant is safely on his way home, Mr. President and I’m happy to report he managed the step up into the carriage on his first try,” the black man, in the uniform of the White House domestic staff, closed the office door by leaning back against it, putting his own body between the stress of the world of duty and the peace that now grew in the second floor meeting room.

The tall man stood looking out the window towards the square-edged stub of a new monument, spoke with a tone that still conveyed a sense of wonder at the distance travelled since leaving Springfield twenty-three years before; with the lack of concern for inflection often heard between friends, said, “I don’t know which I dislike more, the limits on the power I can claim, or the terrible suspicion I’ll be unable to meet the demands when the end-game commences.”

Thaddeus Langford sat in one of the pair of leather chairs opposite the fireplace and fought the fatigue pulling his eyes shut, “If memory serves me, Abraham, we’ve had this conversation from the day you gave up being a shopkeeper and dragged me along as you set out to bring justice to the Eighth Judicial Circuit; I will say now what I said then, ‘Take care to not exhaust yourself in the service of others'”, without bothering to open his eyes, he tilted his head to empathize his point, “and evenings like this, letting your mad-dog general vent the ravings of a half-sane, mostly inebriated mind is what you need to limit, for your own good; I don’t suppose he left any bourbon.”

“You stay where you are, Thad,” Lincoln poured two glasses from a nearly empty decanter, handing the glass to the seated man before allowing himself to occupy the second chair; the light from the hearth flickered over their faces, turning one a lighter color of copper and the other all the more pale, a clay sculptured profile in the hands of an average art student.

“Most people have no idea how critical the intelligence that you’ve secured from your contacts among the slaves and those in the underground railway is to this war,” closing his eyes, the tall man stretched his legs, as if to prevent them from running in a vain attempt to out-pace the fear that grew within, “I promise you, my friend, when all this is over, they will.”

“Well setting the history books straight is admirable, Mr. President, but I was thinking more along the lines of a Cabinet appointment, say Secretary of the Treasury,” after a full moment of silence, the late night silence fractured into shared laughter and the two friends returned to staring into the flames.

 

 

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TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘a Ten Item List in Three Sections’

March 24, 2018 By

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

‘Queen’s River Baptist Church’
(landscape orientation)
A simple, single-story church. The steeple that doesn’t show in the photo is as simple a design as the rest of the structure. If I knew more about religions (in particular this sect of Baptist) I might venture that the attitude reflected in the architecture is surely ‘right attitude’, (as my Buddhist friends might opine’).
Like they say, ‘A church is not a physical ladder to Heaven and it is surely not a invitation to come visit. Those that spend 100 years of time, empty the coffers of the poor and twist the lives of the families of the devout are no different than the psychotically-vain pharaohs of antiquity, building towering stone cathedrals. Like a desperate host going overboard in the gilt and pressed lettering of the RSVP, some religions appear to hope that, by appearing to be more than they are, the God they insist holds dominion over all will be impressed and attend. And, of course, guess who expects to be standing at the door to greet the guest of honor. (Sorry, Kerry, got even more carried away than normal with my ‘descriptions’.)
A Simple, peeling-white-paint church in the middle a field set on the edge of a modern paved highway.

Section 1 The photo here is illustrative of:

  1. My gratitude for the blogosphere and them what inhabit it, in this case Pat Brockett
  2. (On the Finish the Sentence Friday this week), she used a couple of old timey photos* which, naturally, caused me to go all clarklike on the topic and in my comment, (eventually), raised the idea of the relativism seen in photos of the past, specifically in terms of where we build our houses and churches. The church in the photo is on Route 138 in West Kingston RI (Actually, it’s in a section of West Kingston called Usequepaug**)
  3. My work that allows to me to drive around a lot and a) know that this church was where it was, all right there on the highway and such; 2) be able to take a side trip to get myself a photo to make my point and the technology to share it with the mass-ettes. Total Grat.

Section 2 Of the virtual world, both real and imagined:

  1. Over to the Finish the Sentence Friday bloghop this week, I got to tell an Ola story. What causes this seemingly mundane event to make this list is all about how I felt when I told the story, not typed in the post, but out loud to two other people.
  2. Six Sentence Story was fun this  week. Haven’t tried it?  What the hell! Head right over there and check it out. All three administrae are represented in the stories to be read. Josie and zoe and (current) Denise. Tell a friend too. (No, better yet, trick someone you’re not overly fond of into committing to writing a Six. Total, no-lose-proposition there.. lol they’ll either love you or hate ‘cha. Its a fun ‘hop)
  3. Speaking of Josie Two Shoes, she-who-makes-this-TToT-possible/available…. thanks!

Section 3 Una, Phyllis

 

  1. ‘Una watches as a turkey walks up the driveway to catch up to his/her two friends. Seemingly oblivious to the protests of the Chodský pes standing guard on the back of the loveseat at the picture window.’

  2. ‘Phyllis at her computer.*’
    She wants me to tell you that those are the new flowers she bought for Easter.

9) THIS SPACE AVAILABLE  (no, really, it is. If you need a hand over-coming the inertia of not-posting a TToT, put that little darling in a comment and I’ll post it here.)  Friend-of-the-Doctrine, Cynthia  ‘has the floor’:

I have a thankful! That phone interview lasted three times longer than it was supposed to, but I got an offer of acceptance to the McLean Meditation Institute to become certified to teach meditation. Me iz happy! :) I start as soon as I fill out the enrollment papers. I usually call the Doctrine around the middle of the month but alas, the interview time went into Doctrine time. Not sure if I’ll be able to call next week. It’s another ROAD TRIP! :) Going to see family in AZ, NM and CO. Along the way, some sights and sounds. Will post pics! Hope you’ve been well. Tell Phyllis her flowers are gorgeous, and tell Una she won’t ever catch the turkeys but they *do* love to be watched, so she should keep doing that. lol. Also, interesting description of the church up there. LOL. Great thoughts. Happy Sunday!

10) Secret Rule 1.3 (which states, in part, “the completion of a Grat List is, in and of itself, a valid Grat (Item); [mathematically speaking, it might best be expressed: G t minus Item 1-9 = ~ !0

* highly technical photography term, ya know

** The Usquepaug Road Historic District is a historic district near the village of Usquepaug in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. It consists of a collection of properties, mostly on the south side of Usequepaug Road (Rhode Island Route 138) between the Usquepaug Cemetery and Dugway Bridge Road. Although the area began as a rural, agricultural area, it developed into a modest rural village, with a church, school, and cluster of vernacular rural houses. The schoolhouse was destroyed in the New England Hurricane of 1938. (Wikipedia)

Thanks Val! (for the commentversation that totally reminded me of this vid)


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FTSF -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 23, 2018 By

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

This week at the ‘hop, it is the (deceptively) simple, Photo Phryday.

 

So yesterday afternoon I got to tell ‘an Ola story’ to a new admin at my office. It was not my fault, I just happened to pause as I walked past a conversation. Two adults in a spirited discussion about (their) children. As often happens in polite company, someone threw a ‘You know?’ in my direction.

So I told her about how Ola used to hide in the backyard.

The scene: our house has the back and two sides cleared of the pine trees that make up the four or so acres of woods surrounding the house. The backyard is delineated by a rail fence (you can see in the background of the photo above) that has green vinyl wire fencing between the rails (that you can’t see in the photo above). It creates a low profile barrier against un-invited woodland guests. The wire fence, in some sections, is simply stapled to trees. Pine trees, when young, tend to grow together and extend their branches into any available open area. Many of the trees at the edges of the yard had low-hanging branches and they, in turn, created shaded spots between fence and lawn. Perfect size for a dog.

Phyllis, Ola and I would spend as much time outside as possible, especially in the moderate seasons. (A note: Ola was our first dog. We read all the books about training and socialization; we even took Ola to obedience training. The training, however, was superfluous as we were a ‘pack of three’. Unless we were on the streets in public, we never bothered with a leash for Ola. She seemed to have no interest in being anywhere other than with us.)

So we might be in the backyard on a Sunday afternoon and I’d have to go into the house or, perhaps, out through the gate and around to the garage. Ola usually accompanied me, you know, in case I needed help or protection. Sometimes Ola would stay behind in the backyard.

Ola’s game began when I returned.

Walking back through the side gate or out though the lower level doors, the first thing I’d notice was that Ola was nowhere to be seen.

I’d immediately make a major production of being unable to find her. “Now wait a minute! There was a German Shepherd here not five minutes ago. What on earth could have come of her?” I spoke in an un-naturally, (for me), loud voice, in no small part to cover the sound of pine needles being brushed back and forth as Ola, in her hiding place, usually had trouble keeping her tail from wagging.

If Phyllis happened to be the yard, all the better. We’d both walk around the yard, always away from where Ola was hiding and proceed to look under bushes and behind trees; frequently calling to each other, “Is she over there?” “Nope!” “Not near the woodpile!” (thump thump. pine needle brushing noise). “I can’t imagine where she could have gotten to”

Finally, I’d turn to face the part of the yard where she crouched in her hiding place watching us, and exclaim, “Is that…?!! No way!”

Ola would bound out of her hiding place. Her tail wagged and her face in that dog smile that says, ‘This is how life can be good’.

What a dog.

 

This has been an episode of Kristi and Kenya’s bloghop, ‘Finish the Sentence Friday’.

You really should join us this week. It’s an easy week. A photo (and maybe the story behind it.) I, for one, am grateful for the opportunity to remember the story. Re-telling it yesterday, out loud, to another person was, somehow, more than remembering it to myself in my head.

Thanks, ladies.

oh, yeah, my cut ‘n paste

Hi all! In spite of Tucker having a snow day today and having another tomorrow (OMG), we’re on tomorrow night with the Finish the Sentence prompt of simply this: “Share a photo and the story behind it.”
Easy. As long or as short as you’d like. Join Kenya G. Johnson and I. Link up as soon as 10pm tomorrow night (Thursday March 22) at 10pm easter and as late as Sunday night (March 25).
Join us here:
https://www.kenyagjohnson.com
or here:
http://www.findingninee.com

Hope to see you there!

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