Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
This is the Wakefield Doctrines’ contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop
Denise is the host.
The prompt word:
PATH
“Look at you, walking all by yourself,” the child, waving play-doh hands in tempo with feet just getting acquainted, turned towards the voice, a flower to the morning sun, and sat abruptly, for a timeless moment, the world was perfect.
“Your father will be so proud when he sees that report card,” pride, as slippery a concept as ‘Good taste’ and ‘The truth’, added a grace note to the third-grader’s smile; the value of effort to measure up to standards beyond the world of parents and siblings claimed a place in his view of a world that seemed to change each day.
“Come on, you know I love you,” old words, somehow new, offered a connection as powerful as they were unsuspected, she sensed a challenge, not in the very personal cost of one path over another, rather the risk of letting something come at the price of the familiar.
“I do,” nearly-silent, the collective approval of the gathered friends and family strained against the constraints of social ritual, up until the wedding party broke free of the enforced silence of the church and stood outside it’s doors; both searched the faces of well-wishers, and each other’s, for the assurance of, if not a new life, one that allowed the other to become more.
“We’re here,” the hospice room was sparsely crowded with people who were close as family can be and as distant as the living from the dying; the soon-to-be widow/widower stood at the side of the hospital bed, vows long past, remembered now, offering the only handhold.
To insist the path of life is inherently twisted and serpentine is human, to accept that, at its heart, is the straightest of paths is divine; while tempting to hold the complexity of the journey as proof of value, it is the end that justifies the beginning.
*
About clarkscottroger
I refrain from writing my first reaction to your Six, which was comprised of 2 “expletives”, neither of which I would type here, Clark, because, well, it would be inappropriate to type “f*#* da*#.
Make that reaction count number:2!
I am very tempted to let loose my hell-enic gutter mouth!!!!
ty
I know why you put that Samuel pic at the top…to lure me in reading before 9pm…and you succeeded!
Damn!!
You wrote to me a couple of days ago: ” ‘to play a life time of pain and triumph in 12 bars’. v.cool”
I simply painted a tale in a few sentences…but you…
..You played a life’s path with a heart-aching insight in 5 (frickin 5!!) sentences…leaving the last for the coup de grâce!!
(*grabs the keyboard, throws it out of the window, turns the amplifier to max, making every solid to tremble and every non solid to vibrate in TobeholdthethresholddoIdarecrossit Hz…)
Thanks, Nick Sometimes the binding force of the mundane loosens, if only for a second and, if we’re vigilant we can seize (as don Juan* would say) our cubic centimeter of chance
* Castaneda’s most amazing of characters
Good observation about pride: It’s ” as slippery a concept as ‘Good taste’ and ‘The truth’”.
Thanks, Frank
Wow, a tear jerk six sentence story.
Thank you
In awe of the literary skill and wisdom contained in this piece, with none better than ‘the hospice room was sparsely crowded with people who were close as family can be and as distant as the living from the dying’.
Another wow.
Thank you, M
Wise piece, Clark, and a great take on the prompt word.
Thankee, Miz J
Not quite Shakespeare’s Seven Stages of Man, Clarkie, but a brave stab at a life in microcosm
Thanks C
To paraphrase Calvin Broadus, ‘Ain’t nothin but a Doctrine thang.’
Sweet Six and song. Yes, it’s a struggle, but not so bad if you love and are loved, imperfectly or otherwise.
tru dat