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

I’ve mentioned before that Friend of the Doctrine Kristi’s bloghop, Finish the Sentence Friday (FTSF) was the first bloghop I participated when first I landed on the illusionary shores of the virtual world.

And, it was the attitude of welcome and non-whateverness that allowed me to believe I could hang out and see if’n I couldn’t get the words in my head to not embarrass me too much. Kristi (and, down through the years Janine and Kate and Stephanie  Kenya and them) are very appreciated here at the Doctrine.

In any event, I was wandering through ‘the Facebook’ this afternoon and came upon a FTSF post.  I thought to myself, I thought, ‘There is writing that needs to be done if ever I am to get published, but maybe, to relax and get my head into the proper place, I could stop by and knock out a quick ‘hop post’. I enjoyed Kristi’s post, (I always do) and then got to the bottom of the page and saw the ‘sentence fragment’. I immediately remembered the insanely seductive prompts that have been a hallmark of the FTSF. At least for me. Kristi has a way of framing a prompt that is so enthusiastive*

“The first thing I think about each morning is…”

…the world out there**.

That, upon awaking, I cast the external world as a thing apart does not judge the world as much as it informs view of my role in it. There is that ‘space’ between me and the work and the gas stations, the people and the lines of traffic. They are ‘there’ and I am here.

Not that that is a bad thing. It allows for a certain degree of perspective that’s not alway available to real people, necessarily. However it is a fundamental element in how I relate myself to the world around me.

That said, there are places like this bloghop where the alchemy of friendship manages to pull the world a little closer and, by being closer, I might be less distracted by the gulf around me. A good thing.

I have a feeling that, as a post/essay, I have not quite made a clear argument for my thesis. lol. But this bloghop, among all bloghops, has always had the power to beguile me into writing whatever goes through my head. Allowable because there are others writing with the same good intent, i.e. “…lets start the words going and see where they lead!”

And this, for me, is the best thing about the blogosphere. It is a world of stories. The stories of ourselves that we tell each other and the stories we hear from others. And by these stories, sometimes we see in ourselfs parts and qualities we’ve overlooked.

(Brief side note: loved Kristi’s line: “My favorite moments of sleep usually happen just before I wake. It’s then that my pillow nest is perfectly positioned, I’m the exact-right temperature, and is when I have the best dreams.” Not surprisingly I concur, that the dreams we catch, as the house lights come up in the theatre, can be the most enjoyable.)

* not a ‘real’ word. It might be a new word. It is intended to convey the sense of not only putting a person at ease (with the notion of writing a post), but of engendering a real feeling of enthusiasm. ‘Yeah, that’d be fun!’

** Readers of the Wakefield Doctrine will recognize the defining perception of a clark in that very simple completion. But, hey, this is a rhetorical fun house full of mirrors and surprises, lets see what else I might say.