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

Today we are out to gain a new perspective on the matter of ‘there aren’t enough hours in the day’ problem that many of us experience.

But, wait. Before we wade into the rhetorical morass of theories of reality, life and how we relate ourselves to the world around us, what’cha say I (re)tell you the story of the beginning of the Wakefield Doctrine?

In the early 1980’s, Scott* worked at a music store in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He was the only full-time salesman and (also) ran the store’s repair department. In addition to musical instruments, the store provided repair services for a wide range of electronic equipment, including  tape recorders and other audio equipment.

One day I happened to stop by the store to visit. While there, a young man walked into the store, went directly to the ‘repair department’ where Scott and I were talking and without preamble placed a ‘duel cassette recorder’ on the counter. A duel cassette recorder was designed to allow one cassette to be copied directly to another, what today we would call, making a back up. The controls on this ‘dubbing recorder’ consisted of two sets of tape recorder controls: Volume, Treble and Bass. Where it differed from a single recorder was that it also had a Master Volume control. As the name implies it controlled the volume level, for both recording and playback. The tape recorder that the customer placed on the counter appeared to be new and showed no signs of damage or abuse. I stepped back and Scott looked up and said, ‘What can we do for you’?   The customer said to Scott, “This thing is brand new, it worked for a couple of days, then it stopped working entirely. I can’t figure out what’s wrong”.

Scott looked at the device for a second, then, without a word, reached under the counter, brought out a roll of black electrical tape, and, tearing off a 2 inch piece, taped over the Master Volume control (after returning the dial to it’s highest setting). He then slid the device back over the counter and said, “There, it’s all right now.”

The guy asked to plug in the recorder. Taking a cassette from his pocket he put in the machine and ran it through it’s paces. Satisfied that his ‘broken tape recorder’ now worked like new, he thanked Scott and walked out of the store, a totally satisfied customer.

My reality shifted. For reasons not clear to this day, although I observed what scott saw as to the nature of the problem with the dual cassette recorder, I realized that the character of Scotts solution implied a reality, a ‘context’ that was clearly different from mine. At that moment I accepted that the personal reality that I experienced was not necessarily the one that of anyone else. That the manner in which Scott perceived the ‘problem’ was fundamentally different from the way I witnessed it.

From that moment, standing in a small music store in Pawtucket, I’ve been observing the behavior of others knowing that what they are experiencing is not necessarily that which I am, I try to understand, “What kind of reality does this person exist in?”

Lets return to today’s topic, the matter of ‘the curious shortage of time’. Think back to a day when you were eighteen or, even, twenty-three years old. Remember, if you can, the variety of activities you engaged in on that day. Maybe you were in school, perhaps you’d already started a family and were exploring the imagined world of adult life. I am willing to bet that the number of tasks were greater than the count from your average day last week.

Counter-intuitively or not, the older we get, the less variety in the demands on our time.

A better (and more instructive) way to say that is ‘The older we get, the demands on our time become fewer, in part because our perception of (our) capacity to meet the energy requirements of the tasks that would engage us.’ We feel we only have enough energy for what our current life demands. (No, ‘we were younger’ is not a valid response.) This is not simply physical energy we’re talking about. It is how, as we age we settle into routines. Routines for the average day, whatever they may be. And we practice these routines until we can do them in our sleep. We effectively commit all the energy we possess when we wake up in the morning to these routines.

…maybe, for those of us feeling like there isn’t enough time in the day, it isn’t excessive demands on our time, or even a lack of sufficient energy, rather it is an (unconscious) claim on all our energy for the routines that dominate our days.

* yes, the Scott in the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers

…’cause the Doctrine believes any attempt to think should have musical accompaniment.