Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
This is a weekly tradition, around here at the Wakefield Doctrine. Kristi hosts the Ten Things of Thankful bloghop and the Doctrine provides the example that nothing matters other than to come this exercise with good intent. Writing, rhetoric, organization, persuasiveness are of secondary consideration. Simply share those people, places and things that have elicited a sense/feeling of gratitude. It is also a-chronologic… it could be something that happened this Wednesday past or that day in gym class back in junior high school. The key is you experienced gratitude. (Or, such is the latitude afforded us, one (or more) items could be what the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) refers to as hypograts.* )
Whatever you enjoy writing about.
1) Phyllis (for illustrating the Everything Rule** (and providing an example of how the Wakefield Doctrine manifests in the world of the Herd Member) and showing how ‘over-come-able*** giant problems can be if approached properly.)
‘Appreciating Life by risking Death’
Hard to see in this photo is that Phyllis is running and Una is keeping pace (confident in her dog-gift of moving as fast as necessary when the time comes).
The reason for their haste is in the upper left of the picture. What looks like a decent-sized tree falling towards them is, in fact, a pine that has been hung up in the trees since since breaking at it’s base during a mid-winter.
The tree has not yet fallen to the ground. Phyllis and Una got some extra exercise that one of them needed.
2) Una (a role model)
3) Work which provides challenge with only some frustration.
4) Six Sentence Story. Every middle-of-the-week, people link in with stories that are only Six Sentences long, based on the week’s prompt word. It’s fun. You should join us this week.
5) ‘Almira’ Excerpt (this part is, kinda, not fiction at all. #BreadandRosesStrike )
January 12, 1912 and Friday dawned as just another workday in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
The sound of a workday was the polyphonic song of its textile mills in full production.
Its tone is low, like the basso thundering of the ocean on a rocky shore. Like the roar of an ocean, the sound of the mills was not only heard, it was felt. The machines reached from their brick-and-mortar cages down to the earth and back up through the soles of workers shoes, as they made their way to and from their daily stations.
Contralto voices skipped and dashed between the narrow aisles that separated the machinery from the humans. It was the everyday song workers sang to themselves, the mindless hymn to their mechanical gods who they attended in towering brick cathedrals.
Mill workers spent their days in very small worlds, little more than the area required to support a single machine or, perhaps, a row of machines. The worker’s job, in the most simple of terms, was to serve the machine. There was a song shared among mill workers. It found a place in the minds of the working class, perhaps first as a lullaby. A quiet song of hope sung to a baby, in a voice thickened by exhaustion. Words nonsensical, as there was no need for words, only the tone of the singer’s voice. This song would remain with a person for life.
The song that mill workers heard as they toiled through their days grew in complexity. In response to demands for greater productivity, the song took on a questioning tone. And, as they must, questions that remain un-answered for too long, curdle and spoil. Fertile ground for resentment and eventually anger. At some point this song of frustration turns into a song of rage, needing only an appropriate symbol to transform it into a clarion to action.
“Short Pay!! All Out!! All Out!”
Clenched fists holding their first pay checks of the New Year, the workers took to the streets of Lawrence, Massachusetts.
The managers, (and their owners), believed they understood the people working in their mills. They were almost correct. The owners (and the managers they employed), believed the workforce, being predominately female, lacked the aggressiveness and independence to organize and go on strike.
They were completely wrong.
The song in the minds of the mill workers, seeing their meager pay reduced, was the simplest of songs, only two lines, really rather catchy… ‘Short Pay! All Out!’
Thrown into the air by thirteen thousand women, this song of defiance caught the attention of the Furies (as they might exist in the modern era). And myth or not, modern days or ancient times, the Furies have always been near… hidden in dark woods at the edge of farm fields of constant labor or perhaps trapped in the towers of the mills of New England. They waited. Three sisters: Alecto (“the Unceasing”), Megaera (“the Grudging”) and Tisiphone (“the Avenging”) took to the January sky.
On an unseasonably warm January day in 1912, the voices of thirteen thousand workers were loud enough to, for a moment, drown out the sound of the machines they served. The workers took to the streets of Lawrence, Massachusetts.
6) the Wakefield Doctrine: the sine qua non of virtually (ha ha) my entire presence here in the ‘sphere.
7) Sunday Supplement
8) THIS SPACE AVAILABLE (If there’s anyone out there toying with the idea of participating in the TToT but have a reservation or two, send in a Grat and I’ll totally post it here. You know, like a test drive in a new car.)
9) something, something
10) Secret Rule 1.3. (that getting in sight of the end item surely is a reason to (wait for it)…. feel grateful.
*Things that do not come to mind when thinking about feeling grateful. Things that are, well, annoying and a pain in the neck, like a flat tire in a car, a broken shoelace when in a hurry or failing the test that you were sure you aced. Most grat blogs would relegate these life events to ‘What?! Everyone hates when that happens! Why would you feel grateful?!’ Well, being the TToT, the writers you will read have some pretty highly developed attitudes towards recognizing the good things in life. And even the bad things, when viewed from a certain perspective, lose the corrosive negativity and, somehow, can be experienced as a positive. Read the posts, you will see this all-too rare approach to life and such. ‘course, here at the Doctrine, well, we kinda get a pass on the maturity thing.
** the Everything Rule states, quite simply, ‘Everyone does everything, at one time or another’. It (the Rule) reminds us that there is nothing in life that is exclusive to any one of the three worldviews of the Doctrine. And… and! even more importantly, it serves as a reminder to make the effort to try and see the world as the other person is experiencing it.
*** not a ‘real’ word
music video (often these music interludes have some relationship to the post. gotta say, can’t see it) (lol. good song, tho)
About clarkscottroger
Wow, that was a lot of people on strike!
I remember how noisy it was in the cannery where I worked for a couple of summers during high school. It was deafening.
Phyllis has the right idea—going for a walk through the woods—to overcome giant problems.
It really was a remarkable period in history and I’m not overly a ‘history buff’. This part of Almira was already written… I’m sure when I get closer to actually getting the book published I’ll learn how that kind of thing is attributed. (There was such a person as Annie LoPizzo, there was an Essex Corporation that built and, effectively, owned Lawrence Massachusetts but everyone else is fictitious).
#5–I tend to primarily rely on vision when observing the world, but undoubtedly, sound also factors in–and in a big way. I loved the description of the music of the mill. Just the other day, I was talking to John about how much of an impact the sounds of basketball games enhance my enjoyment of it. Normally, I think the squeaks of shoes on a floor would drive me crazy, but in basketball, they are essential. The squeaks, the buzzers, the whistles of the referees–all add to the experience. The description of the mill is the same way; take away the sound, and something just isn’t right.
This is one of elements of the book for which I could draw upon personal experience. Factories, especially old mills with wooden floors were a total environment of sight, sound, smell and vibration. And those horribly dangerous sounding braiding machines, I spent a timeless three months on 3rd shift tending to such OSHA monstrosities. (no! seriously! talk about borrowing from reality to write the book, I had an actual employment person (total roger) ask me ‘Hows your manual dexterity?’ I said, ‘Pretty good’. He handed me a 3×5 card and off I went…I should try an write a short story about going to a new job on third shift. Very different from going to a new job on first shift.
I can relate a bit. I worked graveyard shift at a cannery for several summers. The sounds and smells were definitely part of the whole experience. (Even today, the smell of pickled beets immediately returns me to the cannery!)
Surely one of the most powerful of memory hooks. A total environment… cannery! sounds like a factory, ‘cept wet.
The absolute weight of the world can be upon your shoulders but all one has to do is take a walk with one’s dog and the burden is instantly lighter. I imagine running together and it would totally disappear, if but for an instant.
Powerful excerpt from Almira. These sentences especially –
“A quiet song of hope sung to a baby, in a voice thickened by exhaustion. Words nonsensical, as there was no need for words, only the tone of the singer’s voice. This song would remain with a person for life.”
Dogs are, as we know, perfect lifeforms.
Ah, the determination the owners and managers never saw coming.
Love your list, as always.
Even more impressive for being a true event (as opposed to optimistic fiction)
Awesome post as always, but I wanted to speak to the negatives that become things to be grateful for. Yes…there have been so many times I’ve thought, “WHY did I do that?” or “Oh man, WHY did that happen?” I have figured out that the answers might not come a day, a week, or even a month later. Sometimes they happen years or even decades later and then things make sense. of course, in the timeline of our own lives, everything leads to the next thing which leads to the next thing and so the events in our lives all are leading to the next thing, but they still intermingle and intertwine with others. That then begs the question: is it all magical, or is it just coincidence? I think it’s magic, with elements of coincidence. :)
Without doubt magical.
For, imo, the coolest of reasons: because you have the choice.
Reality is a funny thing. (lol ‘ha ha’) it has a settings panel. If you want to believe that the miraculous is mere coincidence, that is what it becomes. The more difficult path is one in which we seek something more. (I suspect there was a war, pointless-for-the-individual random events versus unlimited power and eternal variety. Guess which side won?) Hey! Maybe the apple wasn’t the knowledge of good and evil, maybe it was the knowledge of magic. (Makes sense, can’t have the first of a near-unlimited market leave the franchise in the opening days!)
Back to everyday magic, or faith (which I put in the same category of extra-normal understanding). Since there is no place in reality for non-reality, it requires the individual to cultivate it.
The cool thing is that all that is required is a willingness to believe (and the secret strength to continue, knowing that everyone, down through human history, will tell you that you are silly, crazy, messed-up or dangerous).
The rest you already know, magic and faith are developed by practice until they burst into life, like a sun forming from a nebula, only at night. Quiet like.
The woods here are full of these almost fallen trees after the recent storms, and me and our dogs look very much like Phyllis and Una ;-) Dogs are so clever.
Very impressive excerpt from Almira, I almost can’t imagine so many workers put their work down.
Hope your week starts well!
They are, indeed, perfect lifeforms.
As I work on the something-th edit of the book, I’m enjoying the response to the excerpts sorts of serial beta Read.
You do the same.
Great list, as usual and interesting story. Oh to have revolted in those days!
the Bread and Roses strike was one of the more significant moments in the development of workers rights, fer sure