the Wakefield Doctrine

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

Six Sentences= Story

Denise: source of weekly prompt word.

Shape the story ’round the word.

This week’s prompt:

Brush

 

The sudden cacophony subsided and harmonized into a liquid clattering of countless rounded stones tumbling over each other in a vain chase after a receding wave, hissing foam vainly calling them back.

He felt in the midst of a limitless crowd, every bus station and airline terminal ever built to shape the passing of men and women, despite it being a soundless place, he realized he could see people listening; countless nods felt only by the pull of a collar’s edge, frowns measured in hair widths, and, on occasion, a smile that narrowed eyes as if to contain the joy and relief.

Discomfit grew at the subtle shift in the mosaic of heads and faces, signs of currents moving the multitude and he felt a hand brush through his hair; a memory of lying in a narrow bed in the fever-yellow glow of a lamp, the touch on his forehead that both soothed the skin and banished the shadows lurking beyond the damply twisted sheets; the smell of a quiet perfume oriented his body to one side and he began to move.

The relief from being in motion dimmed as he encountered static blocks of people and an urge to act replaced the serenity; he felt a hand brush down the side his face, trailing a scent of excitement, this perfume more basic and somehow familiar stirred a tension within, muscles found in each other a common purpose and though he could not see the hand, felt the person at his right side and moved forward.

Interlacing connections among the multitude implied the approach of a duel terminus that projected both discord and peace; he felt something brush against his leg above his knee and felt his right hand was lifted by a low, soft-on-the-surface-shape and he splayed his fingers around shapes that were flexible and responsive, his insight acknowledged by the assuring touch of a tongue on the back of his hand; he knew his destination.

Smiling, looking around briefly for an eternity, he stepped through the door.

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

Corn Spiral May 2018
(Landscape orientation)
The photo is of our backyard, taken from the back third of lawn, while up on an eight foot step-ladder, facing the house.
The top third of the photo: the house in the upper left corner and the shed in the middle-top. The house is an brown-with-the-heart-of-a-pumpkin, the deck projects out from the ground level of the two glass doors. To the right of the house is, barely-visible, Una’s garden and then the shed which, in the photo, is simply a bunch of the natural shadows of the pine trees that surround the lawn, forced into a squarish-rectangle.
The lower two-thirds of the photo is innocent-enough looking lawn. The green of the ‘grass’ (aka anything that grows using photosynthesis and has enough pre-conscious intelligence to stay close to the ground, to avoid the terrible god, ‘Lawnboy-the-Destroyer’) is, as the style of those who write with an eye towards earning money in the lucrative greeting card industry, dappled by the sun through the surrounding pine trees. The effect is less impressive than the thought of someone who would earn living writing greeting cards, (surely this person would do so by sitting in the middle of suburban mall, spiral-bound stenographers pad in one hand, chewed-cap, blue Lindy pen in the other, gazing over the gurgling-stream of humanity that passes in real-life imitation of the rotary background of old, 1960s Saturday cartoons.)
The lawn, stops looking innocent as sound as the second dark circle is noticed. Patterns are funny like that. Seeing two leads to seeing the rest.

1)  Phyllis. There’s an old saying from the Nearly-Enlightened Age of the late 17th Century,  (‘If paint never dried, the most brilliant of still lifes, breath-robbing landscapes, heart-wrenching portraits would, to all but the artist, remain nothing but a rainbow puddle‘), is an apt illustration of the combination of a clark and a roger. The above future crop spiral would not exist without the rogerian drive to concretize dreams.

2) Una. (For providing us here with an irrepressibly-human element*).

3) Work. For allowing me the opportunity to find, learn and practice self-development in the context of the ‘real’ world. And get paid doing it. (Take a hike Tony Robbins, the Doctrines on the move.)

4) the Wakefield Doctrine

5) as always, grateful to Josie Two Shoes for her time, effort and heart in bringing this quiet place in the ‘tween world of the internet so that like-minded people might stop, however briefly, and gain strength by identifying with others who see the world as a place of opportunity.

6) the bloghops: FTSF, this TToT, the Six Sentence Story and, of course, the Gravity Challenge

7) THIS SPACE AVAILABLE

8) Sunday Supplement (holy moley! it is Sunday.) (hold on, it’s a long weekend, so lets just (adjust your sense of uni-directional temporality and this joke will be a whole lot funnier…. ready?) make a little retroactive change.
Monday Supplement

9)

10) Secret Rule 1.3

* surely the most precise of test question that separates students of the Doctrine from the rest of the world lol

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

Our hosts, Kenya and Kristi, are advising us that this week, the FTSF falls on Photo Friday; (of the cycle of themes contained in the FTSF bloghop). Best let Kristi ‘splain,

OMG it’s almost June!?!?? We’re on tonight with Photo Share Friday – simply share a photo and the story behind it! The linkup will go live tonight (May 24) at 10pm eastern and stay open through late Sunday night.
We hope to see you there!
Link up with either Kenya G. Johnson here:
https://www.kenyagjohnson.com/
or with me, here:
http://www.findingninee.com/

OMG indeed!

The story of the photo above:

A photo of the West Greenwich Baptist Church. It’s a real church in a real town in Rhode Island, in the ‘real’ world. It’s one of those photos that, although not intentionally harboring a subliminal message, certainly lends itself to a certain, ‘What the hell?’ reaction. In some of us*.

In the interest of fun, I will leave forego stating my opinion regarding the creepy thing here. After a while, I’ll return and add, “But,  but! what about ….”

* a compliment, of sorts, as the predominant demographic, in the corner of the ‘sphere I can be found, includes those with the quality we sometimes refer to as flexible perspective.

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

Another week already?*

Denise is opening the little door, in the far corner of a high-ceiled room, (in a house that seems to have more ‘down’ than ‘up’, little do we realize…), to reveal this week’s prompt word for our Six Sentence Story.

(To drag the pastiche, leaving a somewhat greasy trail, to the end of this intro), in the corner of this room, on a table with legs like an old, abused marionette is a slip of paper that says, ‘One story contained within six and only six sentences; follow these directions precisely and you will be rewarded by the reading and appreciation of your fellow Sixers.’

The prompt word:

FLEXIBLE

“Miss Mori, your table is ready,” the maître d’ lead us to the terrace where, beyond the single, white-clothed table, the lights of Suzhou reflected in the river like tears clinging to a lover’s face.

I held back to watch her walk, her body was not merely flexible parts moving together, rather she was a symphony of both invitation and demand, sheathed in an iridescent gown; my face flushed realizing how alone I stood, staring. None of the other diners, all individual manifestations of the essence of attractiveness, looked up from their tables, as if bowing in respect to the sophisticated beauty of my Bombyx.

I managed to get to her chair before her and stood, tool-scarred hands clutching the delicately carved wood and waited for her nod; surely the most superfluous of attendants, as her body moved as she willed, never awkward or off-balance.

“So this is our last night together, my love”, from across the small table she slowly looked up into my eyes; the final sunrise of a still vibrant life.

Before her, the bowl of mulberry leaves overflowed in a green avalanche, “You know that this is not the end, it is simply a stage; I will return to you on the quietest of wings and caress your body with the most precious of fabrics,” she smiled and began to nibble the broad, green leaves.

* am I the only one who, by chance pause for reflection, laughs at the absurdity of that statement? I didn’t think so….

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

‘Bella in Flight. An example of full commitment to the moment.’
(Landscape Orientation)
A photo of Bella at the moment of success in catching a frisbee.
She was of the traditional German Shepherd colorings, i.e. dark, nearing black on her back, light brown-to-sable down her legs. Her head was redish brown, light around the eyes and black snout.
She is in the very center of the photo. The background (lawn below, woods behind) is out of focus. She is not.
The camera is with her as she flies from right to left, the woods and lawn are, in a sense, left behind. Such photos are very real examples of one staying in the here and now.
While tempting to describe Bella as ‘flying through the air’ it is clear in the photo that she’s not even thinking about flying. (Not the slightest hint of flapping her fore or hind legs to either side).
What Bella is doing in the photo is running as fast as she can in order to capture the frisbee. And if the earth cannot keep up with her legs, then it’ll just get left behind.
Kind of an example of when we allow our essential selves to express without factoring in the limitations we have created for the world around us.
(Note: Bella is not looking at the camera, proud of her accomplishment. She isn’t really looking at the frisbee. She is capturing the prey. It’s what dogs do.)

Mimi does this thing with a ‘themed’ TToT. Very cool. Will try it this week.

Just need to find a unifying thread, then look to the world around me (and my life) and list ten examples. How hard can it be?

(…this just in… kinda not so easy.)

For anyone out there who happens to be new to the TToT, you know how the youtube is full of ‘How To’ videos? And how the production values range from range from ‘Someone-running-a-vacuum-in-the-next-room-making-it-all-but-impossible-to-hear-what-they’re-saying’ to the ‘OMG-I-could-spend-the-day-just-watching-this-person- talk,-even-with-the-oleomargerine-accent’? This post is not like that. The TToT is full of writers of exceptional skill and style. Each individual contribution will demonstrate the power of the written thought. The other posts, thats ‘How It’s Done’.

Maybe some ‘backstory’ would help, the raison d‘être, if you will. Originally an exercise organized by the founderini, L. Lewis (no, no relation to Jack*) The idea was to force oneself to find things to be grateful for. (Mind you, this did not start as a bloghop. She started writing a post each week on the theme. Very impressive effort). Well one thing lead to another and the bloghop, Ten Things of Thankful, came into existence.

As a reflection of the natural world, the TToT bloghop grew and people came and went and eventually Lizzi found in Josie Two Shoes a kindred soul. I can say without reservation that Josie has not only continued the existence of this bloghop, (no small task in and of itself), she has advanced the spirit of it. To create a place where all sorts of people can share all sorts of experiences that confirm the positive and encourage the identification among those of like minds (and those of us here at the Doctrine, lol) and have fun doing it.

So that’s the history. (sorry, rogers, can’t do the whole post on history**) To the present!

We try to share Ten Things that elicit a sense of gratitude.

(Damn! I just realized my theme.) (Double damn! Intrinsic to this theme is the absence of explication.) (Sorry guy, I just write these, I don’t make up the rules.)

1) Una and her people.

2) Phyllis

3) Work and the challenge it affords me to take on (or not).

4) Technology (which, in this context, is like saying ‘cooking’ when the topic is ‘My Favorite Foods’) and the blogosphere.

5) The people in the virtual world with whom I am individually a friend and as a member of (a) cohort of the imaginative.

6) The Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) ’cause as the old saying holds, “Give me an Etch-a-Sketch in the shape of a book with a Dyna Label that says, ‘Rules’ and I will move the world.’***

7) THIS SPACE AVAILABLE (For any new Reader reluctant to throw in with a group that has someone like me for a member², just go ahead send in one (or two) Grat Items in a comment, I’ll post it here and you can get a feel for participation. I betcha ya don’t hate it.)

Hey, Josie was having difficulty getting the comment section to work for her and she was good enough to email her comment. (She has a way with comments, so here it is, in it’s entirety.

Hi Clark!

 Once again I find I am unable to post my comment on your blog. Darn it!  But I want you to know I am reading and reacting…. so here it is!  :-)

This was great! I love Mimi’s TToT themes, and you are right that it isn’t all as easy as it might seem, but it does cause us to look deeper into things, to see more and be more aware. When I did my theme on my mother last week, it turned out to be insightful and good therapy. :-)

 I love your caption under Bella’s photo at the top. You are right, she isn’t thinking about flying, or afraid of launching into the air if need be. She isn’t looking at the camera or seeking an audience(or grabbing for her phone to capture the moment). She has her eye on the prize… the goal of catching the Frisbee. She is truly living in the moment… a great example for us all!

 I am happy to see the Una Garden back in action, may your tomatoes grow and flourish as your writing has!

 PS – I am a fan of CS Lewis, and the Screwtape Letters in particular…  pure creative genius!

8) Sunday Supplement

This year, ‘A’ is for tomato.
Una inspects the first letter planted for the coming summer.

9) the Theme? (either: footnotes and paratheseses, or the Wakefield Doctrine; probably both)

10) Secret Rule 1.3

tuneage

* seriously, how cool is this internet? (at least for clarks)… that reference to ‘Jack’ is because I had to check the internet for what CS Lewis’ initials stood for (Clive Staples… no, really!). Well the last ‘search return’ on the first page said: “But “Jack,” as C.S. Lewis’s friends knew him, was not bothered by fashion. He was meticulous about the precise use of words, the quality of evidence presented…” (Christian History   thanks guys)

** theres an intriguing insight into the Wakefield Doctrine! rogers are the history buffs and clarks remember. Cryptic? Yes. Accurate and informative once it is understood? Very much so.¹

1) ok…ok, I can hear Josie and Kristi chiding me, ‘Now clark. You mustn’t tease. New Readers want to learn about the Wakefield Doctrine, but sometimes we think you enjoy being provocative just a little too much.’  (Those of an age, think: June Lockhart or Barbara Billingsly)

*** somewhat paraphrased

2) old joke… I don’t tell jokes all that well so…

So come on down and join in the best of all bloghops, the TToT