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

Today we’re joining one of our favorite bloghops, Finish the Sentence Friday. Hosted by Kristi Campbell and joined by Tamara (Klein Bowman) this week.

“I see the light…”

Coming upon this sentfrag* on ‘the Facebook’, the other day, I thought to myself, I thought, ‘Well how hard can this one be?’

“…in your eyes“, “...on Broadway,” or “revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night.”

Then, Kristi being Kristi, (not the least of her qualities I really appreciate is a sensitivity to those of us who spend more time on the fringes), added: ‘Can be literal, figurative, or, even a bit of a reach’.

I can do ‘…a bit of a reach’.

I see the light in...

My mind first goes to the easy places: the seamless beauty of nature, don’t-even-think-about-resisting power of the ocean and the unalloyed love from a dog. As the thoughts sift downward, like in one of those cool flour-processing machines on ‘How Its Made’, the effort to see the light becomes the goal in and of itself.

Most people, I would hazard, if asked to define, ‘Seeing the light’ will liken it to a (new) understanding, an insight, a knowledge not previously available to the individual, Saul of Tarsus kinda thing. Which makes perfect sense, at least in western culture. We, all of us, are possessed of a drive, maybe not rising to the level of ‘need’, but definitely a tropism, towards self-improving ourselfs.

While not original to the Wakefield Doctrine, we put a tremendous amount of value on cultivating the perspective commonly referred to as ‘identification’. You know, “I can identify with you, with those people, with someone in your situation.” I used identification as the linchpin in my previous FTSF, on these very pages. Not surprisingly, as developing the capacity to identify with other people is key, (imo), to enhancing how fully I relate myself to the world around me.

All that said, this morning I was letting Kristi and Tamara’s sentence fragment bounce around in my head, you know, see if it throws off some sparks. At some point, I heard that old saying, ‘the light banishes the darkness’. And the thought came, Suppose they have it backwards.

Maybe light is simply the absence of darkness.

This idea was sparked by random memories from a time in my life when I worked from out-of-the-night into the day. Literally. It might have been the years on a fishing boat, or the time spent serving-the-machine in a factory. I had the experience of suddenly realizing that night had become day. Not standing and staring at the horizon. Just at some point, in the course of being otherwise occupied, I was seeing the world in daylight rather than artificial illumination.

It especially makes sense if you’re a clark because clarks are the Outsider. Self-improvement for a clark has nothing to do with learning.

The darkness for a clark is the sense of separateness. To identify with other people allows the light that is alway there, somewhere, to manifest. If I persevere, I am able to see how things are all connected, when the light is present.

* not a ‘real’ word