the Wakefield Doctrine

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

Denise is the host of the Six Sentence Story

Take the prompt word and write a story exactly six sentence in length. Put that thing in a blogpost. Go to Denise’s website and follow the instructions.

If you do that, your blog’s Six Sentence Story will appear among the other contributors of the week. Once you see all the other Sixes, don’t be shy. Go and read them all. It’s fun, educational and good for you!

The prompt word this week is:

CODE

Maintaining the poker face oft adopted by college professors teaching entry-level courses, the man turned from the class and, treating himself to a private smile, wrote the word, ‘Apophenia’ across the blackboard.

His hand moved with a skill and practiced grace totally invisible to the young people gathered in the lecture hall; finishing with a flourish, he was rewarded with a minute snowstorm as the chalk crossed the slate, like lightning on a winter’s evening.

Behind him, the room came to life, although not yet entirely focused on the front of the room, the vamping of an orchestra just before the conductor raises his baton.

Amid the hormone-spiked susurrus, the teacher, like a seasoned tracker, took in the cues and clues holding the story of all in attendance; prominent was the deceptively inane titter of coeds responding to the muffled guffaws and innuendo-laden smirks of the prerequisite-indentured students.

Equally distinctive, though far more subtle, was the sound he was always alert for, the leaning-forward of soon-to-become-familiar students who brightened like summer fireworks at the sight of the word he’d written.

Beginning his first class of the Fall semester, he spoke to the few rather than the many, “Psychology is ‘the scientific study of the mind and behavior’, if you are here merely for GPA, study and your efforts will be rewarded; if, however, you are here in the hope of breaking the code of life among real people, take mind of the single word I’ve written and you will save yourself considerable disappointment.”

The fairly uncommon word, Apophenia, was the spark for this Six. According to Wikipedia: Apophenia is the tendency to mistakenly perceive connections and meaning between unrelated things. Readers of the Doctrine know that, as a clark, I’m a total sucker for words that imply the world (and the people making it up) are both way stranger than we give it credit for being.

Speaking of weird, most weeks I try to find a music video that either reinforces the story or, otherwise encourages me to write. This week’s vid is neither. I stumbled upon it for reasons quite unrelated to writing this Six, but watching it, I knew I had to include it. A perfect example of a clarklike female. enjoy, yo.

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

Wait Phyllis! Let me esplain!
It’s supposed to be bad, it’s call doggerel!
And you like dogs!

This is the bloghop that Lizzi built, hosted (and curated, managed and made welcoming) by Kristi. The principle: a Grat Item* shared is a Grat Item multiplied**.

So the idea is simple: write a post with ten items of gratitude and link it with the others. Read and comment on the various contributions, and various is the operative word. There are as many styles as there are blogs. And, imo, that is part of the charm of the ‘hop. Some have a direct and simple style, Hemingway-esque; others are lyric in their accounts of the parts of their lives that cause them to feel grateful. The key is in this ‘no rules’ approach.

…so, I was, for reasons best left un-examined, thinking about lyric poetry and how, if Homer could account for the adventures of Odysseus then how hard could it be to write a TToT in the style of Homer. Fortunately my mind wandered. When it returned, I was off looking up the definition of ‘doggerel’. Now maybe that’s more to my style.

Why not?

One is one, that much is clear
Una leads the list, cause she is most dear.

That two needs to follow next, surely no one would dispute
Phyllis accepts the position, ’cause Una is so damned cute.

What to do about the third in this list, a blank I draw
Surely something will come to me, for no other reason than there are seven more.

Lets call this number four, arithmetic hardly ever lies
Unless you’re a clark and you’re adding two plus two and no one minds.

Number five is from the internet’s electronic telescope, though I should be shamed to admit
Finding e.e. Cummings and reading beyond the goat-footed balloon man, I say, “Holy …”

Already the sextuplet position we type
This ain’t so hard (or so good), we need to stick to rhetorike

Seven, traditionally in the lists of the weekend, are for shout-outs
Friends both distant and near, we link and shout and link and something rhyming with ‘out’

THIS SPACE IS AVAILABLE are the words that are written
what exactly it means, well, that is less clear.
What we try to imply, and this is quite certain
Writing for this Doctrine, the author is fatally smitten.

That last item messed with the order, my efforts at doggerel
That it gets me to the last item, ain’t nothin but swell.

Secret Rule One point Three, that cornucopia of excuses
Still, one cannot deny, its nature provides multiple uses.
The definition of doggerel seems writ for the Book of Secret Rules
Who am I to argue, it lets us stop here.

* a Grat Item, one of the units, most commonly numbering ten, (due to the eponymous name of this here ‘hop, here) are those people, places and things that elicit, evince and otherwise stimulate a sense of gratitude.

** nothing weird or scary, like the Disney version of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice***

*** total hypo grat**** for that particular movie studio’s idea of what goes into a good children’s movie. Banshees (Darby O’Gill and the Little People), raging forest fires (Bambi), dogs dying (Old Yeller). Thanks Walt, on behalf of my finally-healing-five-year-old sensibilities, thanks a fricken lot.

**** hypo grat  springing from the Book of Secret Rules (aka Secret Book of Rules) hypo grats are those things that happen to everyone, which is not so bad, and happen to us, which is. From flat tires to broken shoelaces, failed exams to girlfriends who decide you remind them of someone they would rather date… the genius of this bloghop and what separates it from the multitude of other gratitude blogs is that hypo grat Items are valid for a person’s contribution of Ten Things of Thankful….provided…. lol (always a catch). Not so much a requirement, more of an acknowledgement of rather developed sensibilities of those who regularly participate, it is possible to present something that is without redeeming value in so a way as to enhance the rest of (one’s ) list. Others have included hypo grat Item in their lists, writing with such grace as to almost make one wish they had their car break down in the middle of a monsoon.   Almost.  lol

music vid

*

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

Once a week. This bloghop, the TToT, is a gathering of like-minded, (well… similarly-intentioned), people and bloggers. Kristi is the host of (this) virtual clubhouse.

Stop in, read, post your own list. It’s easy, fun and beneficial.

1) Phyllis

2) Una

3) the Wakefield Doctrine for providing a perspective by which I can (better) appreciate the world as the other person is experiencing it. The process of learning the principles of the Doctrine and seeing the world through its unique lens helps me to achieve a better understanding of how I relate myself to the world around me.

4) the internet, ‘specially coming across the source of the expression/movie/book title ‘East of Eden’ rather cool (for the Novel; for the movie; for the original source or, even… perhaps especially, ‘The Land of Nod‘ which, according to the Wikipedia

5) Chapter 7 of ‘The Case of the Missing Starr’

6) Driveway corn…. Looks like a bumper crop of candy corn springing up in the northern fields.

7) Large(r) scale yard projects. Hard to describe the process of clearing the brush piles and wood-chips other than ‘the wheelbarrow will roll’

8) THIS SPACE AVAILABLE

9) Almira. While writing this story, I had a number of occasions to ‘directly link’ my story and the movie upon which it is grounded. Listening to this week’s video, at the very end, after the song, I remembered using one of the Scarecrow’s lines. It’s found in the last chapter and provides a happy ending for one of the main characters, Hunk Dietrich.

Dorothy walked towards the center aisle that divided the rectangle of wooden chairs, now filling with guests and family of the graduates. As she passed the rear-most row, she felt an arm insinuate itself inside the crook of her right elbow. A man’s voice, with the confidential tone of a person trying to secure a favor, came from behind her, “I won’t be any trouble because I don’t eat a thing… and I won’t try to manage things because I can’t think. Won’t you take me with you?”

Hunk was holding hands with a young woman who Dorothy felt she should recognize. The young woman stood to shoulder height of Hunk, had a good figure, short brown hair and dark eyes that blazed with intelligence; she also wore a wedding ring on her left hand.

“Hi, Dorothy It’s me… Becky. Becky Stillworth? From the Circe library?”

She smiled with a friendly confidence that seemed beyond her years, looking to be all of twenty years old.

“I’m sorry,” Hunk spoke quietly, “Dorothy, this is my wife Becky. Becky, this is…”

The two young women were already in an embrace that spoke of a connection that made the social niceties of a formal introduction altogether unnecessary.

Dorothy stepped back and looked at the young couple. Becky’s hand had already found Hunk’s. They stood together and smiled back at her in a manner that spoke of a relationship still in its formative stages. Hunk, easily four inches taller than Becky, broadcasted a surprising assertiveness and, less surprising, pride in being very bound to the woman at his side.

10) Secret Rule 1.3 ’cause, who didn’t grow up with a sense that all the Rules were not clearly and obviously communicated to us. I mean, jeez, how else do you explain adolescence?

*