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Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine- [a Café Six]

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

This is the Wakefield Doctrine’s contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

Denise is the host. There is only one rule: a story must have six, (no more, no less), sentae.

 

Prompt Word:

FOAM

The tall, thin man moved out of the permanent semi-dark of the hallway the way a car exits a modern, automated car wash. A casual observer would insist that something of the shapeless dark swirled as he moved, perhaps betraying a desperate determination to find something to cling to; whether this was attributable to the darkness’ desire to change it’s world or the man’s acceptance of it’s ambition to change his, the result was the same.

He paused on the threshold between the hallway and the Café proper and, doing a passable Botticelli’s  Aphrodite Rising From the Foam of the Sea, the Raconteuse stepped to his side, darkness failing to cling to any part of her.

Extending his left forearm to Chris, a sidelong smile at Mimi and, like a bandleader, a nod to the Bartender and Tom, the two Proprietors began to sing the Zevon classic,

I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in her hand
Walking through the streets of SoHo just ahead if meShe was looking for the place called the Café & Bistro For to get a herself a BLT.

Holding the bar stool for the red-haired Proprietor, the Manager turned to the young woman sitting next to Mimi.

“I know and value the company of everyone here; you, however I don’t know, that said, if Mimi vouches for you I have no objection, but tell me something about yourself that implies you deserve the present company.

 

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Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine- [an Ian Devereaux Six]

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

This is the Wakefield Doctrine’s contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

Denise is the host. There is only one rule: a story must have six (no more, no less) sentae.

Hey! Fans of Lou Caesare and the Bottom of the Sea Strip Club and Lounge! This here Six here, is our ‘Flash-back Six‘ wherein we introduced Rosetta Storme them fine folks at the SSC&B.

… so, please, permit us to intone, “just seven hours and fifteen days ago.”

Prompt Word:

FOAM

“You can’t stop me!”

Something in the young woman’s outburst caused me to hear the old Led Zeppelin song, ‘You Shook Me’ where, through some trick in the recording studio, Jimmy Page’s guitar lead is echo’d before it is played; my entrance was abruptly halted at the hostess station despite the invisible-foam push of restaurant air at my back as the stainless steel and glass doors shut behind me.

A manicured hand on my arm applied a gentle pressure that made me feel stronger rather than lesser; Diane Tierney, the hostess, smiled at me, which in terms of necessary force was a classic example of coals-to-Newcastle.

“Why the fuck should I do that…” in a place like the Bottom of the Sea Strip Club and Lounge, as the last dancer was getting all Seiji Ozawa on the hormonal symphony beyond the multi-colored footlights, that the voice was that of a young woman in the last booth on the lounge side was not cause for alarm.

Diane shook her head while never un-coupling the lock her eyes maintained on mine; I might as well have been in handcuffs and leg irons, though the imagery did little to alarm me; suffice to say, any outburst, vocal or otherwise, in the vicinity of the booth that Lou Caesare used as his office/boardroom/refuge/headquarters was, by definition, approved…

“Well, fuck you!”

Thirty-five patrons gasped in unison even as Diane pulled me towards her out of the path of a the sequined tsunami of a young woman headed for the door; the spell was broken only when Lou called out, “Hey, Devereaux, stop dry-humping my hostess and get the hell back here, I got a job for you”.

 

 

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Wednesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

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

Friend of the Doctrine, Cynthia writes:

So…as a clark, while I do love the occasional road trip, I find myself sooooo content with the home life. A whole world in which there exists all-things-clark (music, art, literature, learning, pets, exercise and even the weekly close-by journey to natural surroundings). I wonder that I don’t want to travel to the ends of the earth all the time like different friends of mine do. But now that I think about it, dang, they’re all rogers! Are there many clarks who are vagabonds?

awright!

Road Trip!

(seriously, (self-directed interrogatory here within parentheticals) ‘That’s your take-away? Step away from the fiction practice… there are (or might be) New Readers out there!”))

ahem

two things:

  1. A whole world in which there exists all-things-clark (music, art, literature, learning, pets, exercise and even the weekly close-by journey to natural surroundings). and

b) Are there many clarks who are vagabonds?1

Lets get write to it

Thanks Cynthia. To point 1) therein is to be found the true value/near miracle of the Wakefield Doctrine. The sense of community. Mind you, the concept of ‘community’ as encountered in modern, civilized, (aka rogerian) society appealing to clarks has the same likelihood of success one might expect when attempting to convince a starving cannibal to go vegan.

That said, while we have yet to find the perfect term/multiple noun/designation without going oxymoric on ourselfs, there is clearly something that happens when clarks gather in open acceptance of their true nature. The closest (and pretty-damn sufficient) phrase to describe the experience is: ‘to identify with’

The Outsider. clarks, in the simplest of terms, are ‘apart from’.

Note: we did not say, ‘apart from people’ or ‘different from most’, hell, we didn’t even say introvert.*

The shortest path to seeing which of the three you, New Reader, might be, is twofold. First, and this is one of those ‘Very Much Agree’ / ‘Partially Agree’ / ‘Meh’ / ‘Are we almost done now?’ questions. When you first awaken from sleep, the concept of the day ahead is best represented as going out into ‘the world out there’

… now the easy fun one!

“Hey! clark….”  “Excuse me err, scott?”  “Hate to disturb you but if you have a moment, roger,” “How much is two plus two?”

 

1) New Readers? Go ahead and plan on a three-page Report, due on Friday, the topic: ‘the Everything Rule’ (Does it really mean what I think it means?)

* tempting as it might be to think of clarks as introverts, that particular label/term is merely a gumdrop doorbell on a candy-cottage in the forest. Guess which of the three predominant worldviews, answers the door. lol

 

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Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

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

Talk about very little time to write!

Way behind.

So, here the basics:

Three personality types:

  1. clarks (the Outsider)
  2. scotts (the Predator)
  3. rogers (the Herd Member)

We all, at a very early age, ‘become’ one of these three. By ‘become’ we mean, through a mechanism not yet understood, a young child begins yo assume a certain bias towards for how she/he relates themselves to the world around them and the people who make it up. Strategies, and styles are practiced until the successful ones are ingrained so much so that the personal reality of the individual becomes clarklike, scottian or rogerian in nature and character.

This is why we say, ‘Everyone has the perfect personality’. (Our unsaid condition: for the world they are experiencing.)

A clark seeks knowledge and information (clarks think), the scott lives the life active, seeking prey and escaping larger predators (scotts act), the roger connects and forms emotional bonds with as many people (and places and things) as possible, the better to represent the Right way of living(rogers feel).

So when you’re out there today and you have the time, (between sentences in your head), observe the others. Are some immediately attractive with a certain unabashed enthusiasm? You will surely notice some people who offer a warm welcome, a sincere interest in what you are there for and, more of a challenge, who is it that, although seemingly busy at work in the background, appears aware of you?

Sorta grad-level People Watching.

…. and don’t forget! ‘The Wakefield Doctrine is for you, not them.

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Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

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

We were looking for a post that had ‘Labor Day’ in it’s title or content.

What the hell? Did not find one at all.

Who said ‘Everything Rule!!’

oh, man! New Readers You gettin’ good.

…almost too good.

yeah, invoking the ‘everyone does does everything, at one time or another’ aka the Everything Rule is a very helpful prompt. ’cause we can learn something about the three personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine and, therefore, about our ownselfs

…well, we’ll tell you.

clarks: their personal reality/the way they relate themselves to the world around them is that of the Outsider. That pretty much describes ’em. oh, more? well, here’s the thing about clarks, they know that everyone around them, from like, hey, four years old? (yeah, at that stage of life, no major influence there, right?) anyway they see that everyone apparently knows something that they can’t, for the life of them, understand. And this knowledge is manifested in this thing, a sense of belonging’ that becomes the brightest porch light to the neighborhood Insecta Lepidoptera. The young clark concludes they missed the class: ‘Growing Up Human 101’ (pre-Requisite: So, You’re Alive! Intro Social Realities 100) … Here’s the thing about Outsiders. They are painfully aware of being different. And they know that the most important thing (other than learning what they don’t know) is they need to hide it. So, clarks are precocious and intelligent and think the shit out of life. There is a curiosity driving them that is nothing like the mere, ‘
“Oh, my what a inquisitive child. This is a smart one. (better watch out, small human, we’re on to you and your pathetic disguise. Slip up once it’ll be your last. And… if you don’t, we have a little program for your kind called adolescence. We’ll get you then our little pretty.”
(lol)

Damn! Used up our time this morning.

Questions?

…yeah, here’s a RePrint

the Wakefield Doctrine ‘of old and new… perspective is all’

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

Today’s Post:

  1. the simplest possible form of the Wakefield Doctrine
  2. a Post from the Doctrine written in 2009
1) Suppose you knew what ‘the other person’ was thinking, would you feel good about (being able to know that) or would you not feel good? If you are the type of person who thinks that seeing things from the perspective of the other person, then the Wakefield Doctrine has much to offer. If you are a person who wants to have an edge when interacting with others in the course of a day, then you should know that the Doctrine gives a person an advantage and if you feel that knowing more about a person is better than knowing less, then despite your aversion to the novel and the outre’, the Wakefield Doctrine is something you should try to learn. The Doctrineoffers a perspective on human behavior that you will not find anywhere else. And you can’t get it wrong… if you can remember the characteristics of the 3 types and you can suspend your disbelief enough to be able to imagine that everyone is living out life in a slightly different reality… you are there.
2) as follows:

Hey Reader! Yeah, you!

Do you believe that your (personal) history defines and (pre)determines your future or what? Is there such a thing as the momentum of habit. (The ‘momentum of habit’  is the notion that what we are is simply a more elaborate form of what we have always been.) (Cheery thought, no?)

Well? Do you think it does?  (Don’t you dare touch that “Back” button.)
(in a fairly creepy, sudden shift to a calm tone…)  “Do me a favor, you know something about us here at the Doctrine

…look back on your life. Try to remember and recall the things you have done, the places you have lived, the people you have known, since as far back as you can.
Now: erase the names of the people, delete the addresses of the locations and take off the labels of the things you have done (a job title, your education, religious designations).
You can still remember your life, can’t you?
Even with names and labels removed/deleted/eliminated, you know that you have been alive, a life that is yours and yours alone.
You know, even without the names, that you lived in one place (or many different places), you knew a few people (or a lot of people) and you spent your days…doing this (or doing that).
Your ‘life story’ runs from the first (often vaguely recalled) times you remember as a child and continues, an un-broken line up through and right to the present moment.

Pretty goddamn ‘straight’ line isn’t it?

Look at your life in terms of how many different interests and activities and ways of investing your time that you have experienced. How different was your life when you were 7 years old compared to when you were 17 years old?(…or 27 or 77…)
(Yeah, yeah scott, I get the ‘I gots the girlfriends/boyfriends thing’ Does not matter. Lose the names, and they (still) are people you shared yourself and your time with, no different from a best friend in second grade or a spouse in middle age or the person in the bed next to yours in the nursing home.)
What I am trying to get across here is that the important thing  is not the names of the people, places and activities that comprise(s) your life.
Rather, I am asking you to consider the question, what did they (seem) to add to your life, why did you give them your time!?

I want the Reader to consider their lives without the qualification/rationalization/justification that we all impose when we reflect on our lives.

… ‘he was a great friend, even though he was an asshole’… ‘I really liked spending time with her, but I had to because she was family’ … “of course we are happy together! We have beautiful children and a nice home’… ‘I know this is a boring job, but I will stick with it, because otherwise, what will I do?…’maybe I can still pray and maybe its not too late for me…”who will take care of me if I get sick?’…

(These little quotes barely hint at the myriad of ways that we employ to make the fact that what constitutes ‘our lives’, our essential nature and character,  is the same today, (as you read this Post), as it was on your very first day at school.)

So?
So what, what is wrong with that, at least I have a life that I can look at and say, ‘hey I’m not doing so bad’!

(You are correctscott.  and someone please tell roger to come back into the room, we have stopped talking about life as if it were totally unpredictable and un-certain. We won’t talk about interchangeability any more.)

Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?  (Yes, I am seriously getting ready to close out this Post for today.) (No, I actually don’t have a more satisfying denouement for todays Post)

(writer leaves, house lights stay off…)

If pressed, I would have to say the point of this (Post)  is that our essential natures (clarksscotts and rogers) will determine how our lives are experienced and will force a consistency throughout the years (of our lives).
Having said that, I will remind everyone that the Wakefield Doctrine is predicated on the idea that we all have the full range of potential, we are all (potentially) clarks and scotts and rogers.
And despite how this Post reads, we always have the potential to feel, act, or think in the manner of the other two personality types.

Which, in fact, really is the purpose of the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarksscotts and rogers).

 

 

 

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