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

This is the Ten Things of Thankful (TToT) bloghop. Created by Lizzi in late May 2003, it is a collection of the contributor’s reflections, insights, thoughts and feelings rising from the conscious and deliberate effort to express the significance of gratitude in their respective lifes. …plus a post from us here at the Wakefield Doctrine. To remind us that reality is, at times, only as real as you make it. As we all know, there is nothing more personal than personal reality*.

But, serially, this bloghop is a) inspiring and/or beneficial to Readers and Authors and 2) is, at times, fun. Whaddya gots to lose? If you’ve made it this far, we will hazard to say, you have got what it takes to be a TToTeer… (err… Thankful-ette? nah… Gratitoid. ewww…. blogger-with-benefits? that’s not bad… BwB! Lets see how that flys in the coming weeks or whatever the half-life of almost-good nicknameage is.)

So, lets wave to our host, Dyanne, and get out there and see what kind of mischief we can ourselfs into.

1) Una (for whom a television is just another window to the world)

2) Phyllis (while being human is hobbled by the hierarchy of reality, ‘this you can touch! it is surely the truest reality’ still enjoys the capacity to feel without touching and touch without feeling and knowing without either.’)

3) the Wakefield Doctrine

4) serial stories: ‘the Case of the Missing Fig Leaf‘ and ‘the Whitechapel Interlude‘

5) (the) Six Sentence Story bloghop

6) the 20 Minute Real Estate Briefing (this week, I’ve linked to our Facebook page… though, the YouTube page is easier to sort through)

7) (grateful for a chance to pay it forward)… A little backstory: our property includes a pond and a treehouse and a bridge over the aforementioned pond. (This is iteration 27 of ‘the Ola bridge… which was constructed by Phyllis and Denise… photo at the top of the post) The thing about the property is that we’ve never had kids take advantage of the woods since the first year we moved in when we came upon a group of early teens building a campfire under the shelter of the largest pine tree on the property. Plenty of pine needles for kindling… lol We said, ‘No, don’t do that.’ and they ceased and left… a couple other times over the thirty years we’ve been here… mostly four wheel motorcycle things favored by young scotts. Pretty much been peace and quiet for the three of us.

So this morning Phyllis came up as I was starting the first brush pile clearing of the season and said, “There’s someone down on the bridge.” So I said, “OK lets go down there and check it out.” From a distance it was clearly a young person standing on the bridge with a fishing pole. Phyllis went back to the house, but, for unclear reasons** I decide to go down to the bridge.

It was a boy of, maybe eight or nine, and he stood on the bridge, pulling on his fishing pole which was almost completely vertical. I decided, almost immediately, that he wasn’t fly fishing. Then I noticed a corresponding motion of a tree limb that over-hung the bridge. Ah ha! His line was caught up in the tree. I continued in silence and the boy continued in silence. He was totally concentrating on the point where his fishing line was entangle with the branch, but I knew he was aware of me (what can I say, he was young and his powers of invisibility fairly undeveloped). The branch, holding the fishing line was way out of reach.

Finally I stood next to him on the bridge. He looked up at me when I said, “Caught in the branch?” He said, “Yeah”. As it turned out, the tree the branch was attached to was a sapling and so, I bent the whole thing downwards over the bridge. The kid went to work on trying to untangle his line, which he eventually did. In silence, no conversation needed. The Doctrine tapped me on the shoulder when I noticed another kid, older and bigger farther up along side the pond (maybe 100 yards away). I looked the kid on the bridge and he said, “That’s my friend, I live next to him,” pointing in a vague direction, “we came in through the woods.”

The ‘friend’ was busy fishing. I interrupted him briefly by calling out, but he was busy.

I left the very young clark to get through the rest of his day. I feel good that I was able to help another of my people avoid an un-necessarily unpleasant interaction with ‘real’ life. I thought of a million things to tell him, ninety-nine percent of which amounted to, “You are a competent human, but the strength of that understanding will never come from others. And, though an outsider, you have value.”

I wished him well as I walked away. In my mind, of course, in my mind.

8) THIS SPACE AVAIALBLE

9) Of course, it’s no secret that live webcams are the only genuine entertainment on the net. We both enjoy watching the Iceland volcanos…. and the only place (and totally enjoyable to listen to his take) is the Dr Fox2000  (webcam). We recommend it.

10) Secret Rule 1.3 (from the Book of Secret Rules aka the Secret Book of Rules) which states (or implies) “…[t]he near completion, or finding oneself in typing-distance of the last item (traditionally Item 10)… the rhetorical question, ‘How does that make you feel, what with almost, actually, completing this list?’ is floating in the air with little thought balloons… “Number Ten!! I would be a perfect Item 10!!” ….err, op.cit. ibid, y’all”

* the idea that reality, (as experienced by individuals), is intrinsically personal, is central to the foundation of the Wakefield Doctrine. Nothing weird. Well, nothing too weird. Not like puppies performing open heart surgery or a clark leading a fundamentalist congregation

** it is almost axiomatic at the Doctrine that, for clarks, very often the best reasons (for action or behavior) is unknown. At least at the outset.

music

*  (For the record, we at the Doctrine tend not to enjoy favorite music played by musicians who are, somehow, (and quite disconcertingly), now old people (think Paul McCartney but do not think any of the giants of the 80s, god is paying those poor bastards back, big time… kinda like a ‘Rejuvena Infomercial’ in reverse… despite their talent… no fun to watch; mortality does not always inspire gratitude and appreciation. That said, we came across this ‘update’ of a classic of the 70s: Average White Band’s ‘Pick of the Pieces’… done in an episode of Daryl’s House… I smiled as the playing was most excellent and ever one seemed to be having fun)

* (A cover of a Jimi Hendrix tune by Jeff Beck and Seal)

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