Month: April 2019 | the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

April 28, 2019 By clarkscottroger

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

‘Pond in mid-Spring’
(Landscape orientation)
Our pond as Una would see it from her vantage point in photo #1 below. The water is dark, it’s blueness on loan from a sunny sky, and even then, showing only as globs of light in a shadow-dark surface.
The pond extends from almost the upper left corner and runs down across to the lower righthand corner. (Picture the right side of the top half of an old-fashioned hourglass).
Standing along the dry land are the winter-bare trees. The thinner trunks are closest to the water, clearly the younger members of the woods have not lost the sense of fun and/or adventure.

This is the Ten Things of Thankful bloghop.

Founded by Lizzi Lewis (no relation to CS Lewis, at least none that we can actually prove), the Ten Things of Thankful (TToT) is a once-a-week sharing of writings, musings, photos and all sorts of reflections upon, observations and expressions of the writer’s experience of people, places and things that cause, elicit and otherwise incite a state of being grateful.*

And…and! being a bloghop means that each post is a assorted variety (or would that better be, a ‘varied assortment’?) of views, comments, adventures and insights offered by a group of skilled bloggers …. and us here at the Wakefield Doctrine (…bar rump bump) (lol)

Organizing the multi-circumstial** gathering is our host, Kristi. Beside being an outstanding photographererer… Kristi has that all-too rare gift of keeping things organized without letting the air out of the carefree balloon. (Tougher than it looks, yo).

And so, our contribution to this week’s TToT

1) Una

2) Phyllis While spousal units are frequently seen in a TToT (the Wakefield Doctrine is surely no exception), there are times when the qualities (they) manifest becomes a challenge to describe in writing. This week I’ll simply say, ‘Phyllis shares my appreciation of the positive message in this week’s video.’

3) Gardening 2019 This shall serve as our ‘Before’

4) Beta Reading. I’ve reach the point in my writing of ‘Almira’ where its time to let people read the story in its entirety. Let me know in comments if you’d be interested in reading it and I’ll follow-up by email about the format that is best suited to your technology. No cost or requirement to respond after reading, though any feedback will be appreciated. It should be fun. Seeing how often I’ve done excerpts on these pages, a good number of people know who Almira Gulch and Hunk Dietrich and Edward Fenton are, not to mention Dorothy Gale. So let me know and I’ll wrestle the manuscript into a form that will make it easy to read.

5) Favorite old ‘oTs This from a series in one TToT from way, long ago (look at the condition of the hat on the dashboard)

6) Another vid from that TToT

7) Work and the things I get to do. (Mostly, in the words of Jules Winfield…)

8) Kerry. I’m not overly adept at following people in the social media. Truth be told, in the face of the multiple virtual venues like Instagram and Twitter and other places, I’m about as varied as Ward Cleaver’s selection of business suits. I do follow Kerry on ‘the Facebook’ and from what I gather, she’s off to another conference somewhere in Canada this weekend (which for me brings up visuals of: Winter Olympics, Sgt. Preston, Snidely Whiplash and that cool hotel in Quebec (or maybe it’s Toronto). I watch the things she does as a writer and advocate charging into the world and, I’m like, “Damn!’ How cool/daring/impressive is she?”
Stop by her site and check out her podcast, ‘Ketchup on Pancakes‘.

9) THIS SPACE AVAILABLE (Just in case you’re new to the TToT and, although you know you’ll enjoy participating, maybe you want to wait and watch a while. Send in a Grat Item and I’ll totally post it here. You know, like getting invited to sit in for a one song at the local club.

10) Secret Rule 1.3 (Reference the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules)

music vid

(now this is a song that offers a glint of light at the base of door that many people will walk past, eyes focused on the map they inherited from family and friends which does not indicate anything of interest. the story (that I choose to believe) is that it was written by Brian May about his dog. and following the thought expressed in the lyrics, rather than that in the chorus, results in something quite positive and uplifting. imo, of course

* …or not grateful, such is the broadness of the over-arching tent of this here ‘hop here, is there is a place for the broken shoelace, studied-like-all-night-get-a-‘C’, find out you have to work on the weekend and all the other things that happen in real life, here at the TToT. They are referred to hypo-grats and require a special level of attention on the part of the writer, the standards for inclusion (in a TToT) provided courtesy of the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules)

** not a ‘real’ word. chances are, though, if you’re still reading, you get the idea

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: relationships, self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine, Understanding Human Behavior

Six Sentence … -the Wakefield Doctrine-

April 25, 2019 By clarkscottroger

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

Once again we join Denise and her band of word-wranglers over at the Six Sentence Story blog hop.

New participants and Readers? Here’s the drill: a new prompt word each week and Six sentence requirement (nothin over or below… semi-colons is ok).

This week’s word:

Memory:

“Relax, don’t try to force it,” the words, coming as they were from someone wearing a stethoscope and a white lab coat, were as powerful and impersonal as a ball bearing dropped from a skyscraper.

He didn’t feel like he was in a dream and smiled at the thought, Well, at least I have a pronoun and an inferred location, the smile evaporated at the thought of laying claim to qualities that simply do not normally occupy conscious thought.

The voice continued, “Memory is more than facts and information, it is, as an old TV commercial sang, the fabric of our lives.”

This other man, claiming membership in the same gender, if only for subtle the challenge in his voice, looked ‘pre-familiar’, like childhood photos of people you knew as an adult.

A burst of static stabbed countless tentacles into the surface of his brain forming, in their soundless echo, the image of a woman standing over him and, from behind (or above) her, this same man’s voice.

“…this treatment, well think of it as a reboot for your mind, everything should work as it did before, although you might experience some moments of disorientation.”

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: Six Sentence Story, the Wakefield Doctrine

Twosday -the Wakefield Doctrine- “…question-calisthenics for the idle mind.”

April 23, 2019 By clarkscottroger

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

Being a clark (and therefore reasonable, time-proven approaches to exercise falling on totally deaf ears) lets get to the Question of the Day:

Do we wake up each morning a totally new person with a set of memories to allow for seemingly natural living?

or

Are we the same person we have always been, despite the fact that we seem to forget some things that we deem important and remember (far too many) things that are trivial, inconsequential in light of the day before us?

Let us know your thoughts.

(A clear sign of being out-of-practice in post-writing when, just a moment ago, I hit ‘Publish’ rather than ‘Preview’)

New Readers?

the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers) is a perspective on life, the world and the people who make it up. We are all born with the potential to experience the world from one of three perspectives:

as an Outsider (clarks those who see the world as being ‘out there/apart from’, they are creative and bold with a calculated helpless air about them. funny as hell, great friends, hopeless romantics)
a Predator (scotts the life of the party, the roaring beast (saving themselves for the pack), they are those who have no time to waste on the past and are too busy in the present to be concerned with the future.)
a Herd Member (rogers those who provide the world with stability and predictability, convenience and persecution. without these people: planes would fall from the air, ships would sink (’cause they’re fricken made of steel for cryin out loud) and two plus two always equals four… and (without which the world would lack: fire departments, tax law and the Salem Witch Trials)

At a very early age we settle into one (and only one) for these three. We proceed to grow and learn about life and the people and things and all…as they are manifested in the reality of the above three worldviews.

We never lose the potential to experience the world (and the things and the people in it) from the perspective of the ‘other two’. That being said, contrary to the more mainstream (and therefore rogerian (and therefore kinda unimaginative)) approaches to personalty types in which a person is examined and perhaps asked to take a multiple choice test, the results of which are tabulated, analyzed and dramatized, the Wakefield Doctrine says:

‘Consider how the other person (or yourself) is (are) relating to the world and the people and the situation at hand. Which is the most consistent description of that relationship? Is the person remaining at a distance, vague and noncommittal, clearly with an eye on the exit (or the bathroom)? Might the person you are watching (or the reflection in the nearby mirror) seem at home anywhere there is activity, motion, change, threat and the promise of triumph? (Since you’re asking)…consider the person (or yourself, even though last in this series, you haven’t been forgotten)…do they seem to be at home, confident in the solidity of the earth beneath their feet, the sky above their heads or the bond they have with most of the world?’

Answer those questions and you have the Wakefield Doctrine as a tool to self-improve yourself.

Y’all come back now, heah?

yeah, gotta have some tuneage

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine, Understanding Human Behavior

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

April 21, 2019 By clarkscottroger

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

This is the Ten Things of Thankful bloghop. It is hosted each and every week by Kristi. She invites all to join in and share posts that are focused on the things (Ten or so*) that have been notable in their elicitation of the feeling/thought/emotion and/or recognition of gratitude.

Hey, I’m not a roger, but…. how about we pull the drop cloth off the Wayback Machine and add (down at #7) a visit into the past.

1) Phyllis

2) Una

3) the Wakefield Doctrine

4) work

5) the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules)

6) Almira (getting close to finishing the ‘better-stop-and-see-what-real-readers-think-of-the-story’ point. stay tuned)

7) Sunday Supplement: How about the first Doctrine Easter post (sorta …posted on the Saturday before Easter Sunday 2014) Seeing how clarks are funny about privacy and such… I’ve included the comments to the post but have deleted direct identification of the writers… no, I don’t know why that seems like the right thing to do.)

April 19, 2014

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

It is TT Saturdee, the sun is shining (which is good), the temperature are in the life-supporting 40s and there is a full day of work waiting for me, like gym class when it rains and the horrible ‘bad-worse’ possibility races towards you: dodge ball or square dancing. Talk about lose-lose.

But this is a grat list Post, so a list of things that I am/feel/should-be/try-to-encourage-the-feelings of gratitude in my life is what I am damned and determined to write, this morning.

1) Vidchats. Every Friday night since, like forever it seems, we have been doing video chats. They are always worth the time I spend there.

2)…. ok, it’s here… I know it’s in my head* wait! no yeah lets come back to Number two

3) Now, I know I’m in trouble… I just Numbered out 1-10 what is almost always a sign of being ‘on the ropes’ gratitudistically-speaking that is (my honest self-acceptance is surely something any reasonable person would feel grateful for!)

4) the freedom to end a sentence on a preposition. I will, in fact, claim this as an Item because I’ve just spent the last 10 minutes (in ‘non-typing time’ which, as we all know, is the variable equivalent of time reading to time writing, in my case 1 minute of reading time equals 8 minutes of NTT (non-typing-time)

5) I need to list my ‘work’ as it is something that I am grateful for even when the stress levels get to the point that make standing on the deck of a boat in the middle of the ocean, picking up dead fish seem like a much, much better way to earn a living.

6) My vfriends (who I may need to list individually in order to complete this list any time before the 4th of July) they are good thing.

7) time and necessity require that I invoke the dreaded, all-conversation-in-the-room- suddlenly-stops Rule 9.3 (of the Book of Secret Rules**) and present what I have written so far as TToT #44.5 (of course, 90.3 does require that the ‘second’ ‘half’ be completed within 24 hours or a visit from (one of) the SevenGuard Virgins (and it’s no likely to be ‘Sleepy’ or ‘Happy’) can be expected.

8) ” …Indoor plumbing……”

9) “….a car in which to do vlogs and annoy vfriends with your lit seatbelt light”

10) and …friends like Christine to provide the ‘note from home’ to get me through todays Post!

* like a clark spends an inordinate amount of time anywhere else!

** Secret Book of Rules

Your hosts

A Fly on our (Chicken Coop) Wall, Amycake and the Dude, Considerings, Finding Ninee, Getting Literal, I Want Backsies, Mother of Imperfection, Rewritten, Thankful Me, The Wakefield Doctrine

Join the Ten Things of Thankful community and work with us to nurture an attitude of gratitude. We use the whole weekend to focus on the Good Things in life. Make a list of Ten of those wonderful Things, then share the Wonderfulness with others.

Please take time to have a look at some of the other posts and leave the bloggers some comment love – let’s get the appreciation going. The comments are where the magic happens, so start a conversation with someone.

Comments

FRIST?!

okay now that I have secured my position in the world of bloggers everywhere I gotta go back to work and shall return…

clarkscottroger says:

FRIST

Is that cheating? To call frist, then not actually comment?

clarkscottroger says:

Nope!

(as long as a comment follows co-tangentially to the intial fristationing)… you never know who’s lurking in the ether about to hit Publish. A skillful, competitive Commentationer will score and then write the comment.

Nyaa nyaa nyaa nyaaaaaaa nyaaaaaaaa…in yer face!!!!!….oh…excuse me…did I say that out lou

Let’s hear it for zoe!

thanks you my adoring fans…ahem…fan.

Seem to be having a wee bit o’ trouble with the thankfuls this week, Clark. You have forgotten the back up. No need to call the guard virgins. Indoor plumbing…a car in which to do vlogs and annoy vfriends with your lit seatbelt light…and that’s all I’ll contribute. I’ve got my own lists to do!

clarkscottroger says:

thank you!

That whole never-end-a-sentence-with-a-preposition rule causes me grammar grief. I don’t know how many sentences I have started and then scrapped because I can’t seem to end them correctly! It’s ridiculous, really.

I never worry about the way I end sentences unless it’s absolutely stupid and, like mid-

So there’s that.

Also I managed to turn into…not a GuardVirgin (a leap too far of the imagination, not to mention that…oh nevermind) but one of the evil Snow White’s pets (Laura was having a bad day, too – we ended up as Snarky and Bitey).

clarkscottroger says:

It must be astronological, like maybe ‘the Moon is in Spaghettios’ or something

The moon is in Spaghettios’? sloppy joes perhaps… wtf with all the food references lately???? damn…. never mind…. Way to go , Christine! Nice additions to the list… I do believe I heard Clark take a deep breath after that…

Hey, you said to remind you… you may not be in the mood but you were going to answer my question and before you say “what question?” refer back to 4/15 comment stream… No pressure cuz iI was surprised you were actually going to formally answer it… so that said…

No…I’m not sure we know each other well enough to have synced up that way yet…

Isn’t it in the Secret Book of Rules (or Book of Secret Rules) that a proposition is something we are allowed to end a sentence with? PAHAHAHAHAAAA!

So that’s what the book’s for!

clarkscottroger says:

Very true, the Book of Secret Rules is truly where it’s at

Hmmm….those Seven Guard Virgins have certainly been coming up a lot in your recent conversations.

clarkscottroger says:

they are very charismatic Virgins

And have a great Easter, Clark?

clarkscottroger says:

thank you, Michelle

I too am thankful for indoor plumbing and the “artistic license” to end a sentence in a preposition. If you are celebrating Easter today I wish you a wonderful holiday.

clarkscottroger says:

license??! I need a.. (ok, that started out funny in my head)

Jen stole my comment. Here’s to indoor plumbing and awesome friday night vidchats with awesome friends like YOU :D even though I did need to show you the right way to tell the story ;)

clarkscottroger says:

lol
and I thank you for that

Your list is perfection. I won’t admit how many times, on my nightly list I write things like: sunshine, a car, laughter, shoes… because of how long the day was. It is gratitude for the little things that make the stressful seasons palatable.

clarkscottroger says:

thank you. for something so simple, I am always surprised at how frequently I forget this.

I’m digging Frog in Paris. And always Clark.

I’m digging Frog in Paris too! You crack me up Clark! I can’t wait to meet you on the chat someday…
And what’s with these virgin guards? Is this a vidchat thing? Whatev. I’ll get there and find out for myself… one of these damn days.

8) THIS SPACE AVAILABLE. (For anyone wanting to get theys feet wet in this here bloghop here. Send in a single grat (if thats what’cha got) and I’ll post it right here at Number 8

9) something, something

10) Secret Rule 1.3 …because we all live, to some extent, large and small, by Secret Rules. The more we know about the Rules, the better we can be at…

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

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine-

April 17, 2019 By clarkscottroger

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

‘Migrant Mother’
Dorothea Lange 1936

This is the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

Hosted by Denise, she, each week, suggests a prompt word and invites all to write a story relating to this word. The only requirement is that our stories come out to being exactly six sentences in length.

As I am wont to do, from time to time, before starting this week’s SSS, I wandered through the internet. For one reason or another I ended up on a page talking about the Dust Bowl which naturally lead to Black Sunday (April 14, 1935), which was one of the worst of the many dust storms that scoured the western plains states. This part of the country during the 1920s and 1930s is of particular interest to me, as it’s the setting for a good part of ‘Almira’, (my WIP).

While searching for images, I ran into the incredible photography of Dorothea Lange. I’ve encountered the photo as, I trust, have most of my readers, though I did not know much at all about this woman. (Have a link that will give you a start if you’re curious.) In any event, this is another case of a Six prompted by a photo/historical event.

This week the word is:

POINT

“We can’t wait no longer Ma, I got ever-thing we own, least what the banker ain’t took, in the truck; last Sunday’s may of been the worst so far, but it surely won’t be the last dust storm.”

Like a clockwork camel, the black-and-baling wire Ford, loaded to the springs with the Hutchin’s possessions, stood in front of the tar paper and raw-pine house; beyond it: acres of once-fertile fields, now a desert except for scattered groves of fruit trees, standing by virtue of deep roots and flexible branches.

A frown grew amidst the uncomplicated wrinkles and lines on the woman’s face, like clouds gathering over an exceptionally beautiful sunset.

Looking at her husband in the doorway, she spoke with a quiet strength that brought to mind water-rounded stones slowing a powerful river, “Next Sunday is Easter, would have loved to be here, in a home resting on the earth rather than rollin’ over it, but the good lord don’t always make his plan clear.”

Taking his hat off, as if to offer a part of himself usually kept within, he said, in a church-quiet voice, “Can’t say this was the life I’d a hoped to provide for you, Ida, but the point is the truck’s outside, gassed up and pointin’ west; time for us to get on the road.”

Five-year-old Ethan, leaning against his mother’s leg, clutching the fabric of her dress, looked up at his father, a soldier safely on the ground, unwilling to let go of the parachute that put him in a hostile land.