Personal | the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine- *

September 3, 2016 By clarkscottroger

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

1) Surely, Phyllis has earned the Item 1 spot on this week’s TToT list, with her ’21st Century professional woman at work in a treehouse’ (eat yer fictional hearts out, Swiss Family Robinsons!)

2) Una was also hard at work,

No, I have no idea where the ‘work’ theme is coming from, this is, after all, Lizzi Lewis’s grat bloghop which invites all to gather, collate, briefly describe and otherwise list items and things, events and happenstance from the previous week (or time frame of your choice) and share it with readers and virtual passers by. Now, it’s understandable, her being the grandniece of C.S. and all, and hailing from the United Kingdom (England to some of us older folks) that work should be a re-current theme. But there you have it. There are no rules other than the secret rules. Fortunately for us, they are available in the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules)

3) gotta mention the BoSR/SBoR! They totally are my raison d’être (or would that more properly be cartes blanches ? wait! maybe …yeah! I’m gonna go with the cortez blanket…. ) the Book, if you find it, is a total treasure and should always be at hand when TToT’ing.

4) Speaking of work… in my work I get to drive around a fair amount. And who knows what you might see. I do! This is probably a bit Y Chromatic of me to post, but it was cool… even cooler in person, when you could see the whole thing (which was a portable crane that was about 60 feet tall, moving roof trusses into position in a condo, under construction…)

5) Shout out to my other favorite bloghop, zoe’s Six Sentence Story… I participate each week ’cause it’s fun and good practice with the writing thing.

6) The Gravity Challenge is going strong, heading into it’s second Autumn. Val and Lisa, Sarah and Kristi and our two scotts, Joy and Christine, are all, like total troopers, what with the photos every morning (except on Sunday).

7) Almira. For those of you following along, this last chapter had some pretty significant life events for our characters. (I won’t spoil the fun and surprise, if anyone is just starting.) One interesting challenge to my current skill level, is how to join the two timelines. One (story line) is pretty much Circe, Kansas in the Summer of 1939. The other… well, since this is the story of Almira Gulch née Ristani, we start in 1911 and, with our last chapter have moved into 1912. hmmm (you might be thinking, ‘hey clark… theys nearly 30 years separatin’ your story line… whatcha gonna do?) What I’m gonna do, indeed. Don’t really know. Hope the answer comes to me soon. Stay tuned though! This weekend Chapter 23 is due out! We left Miss Gale and Miss Thornberg headed to St Mary’s Hospital and we’ll be joining Sterling and Almira (and even, briefly, Frederick Prendergast) in the aftermath of the beginning so the ‘Bread and Roses Strike’ (btw this was a real event in history, kinda interesting)… but we will learn much more about our young couple and what transpired in the years between 1912 and 1939 for our young heroine.

8) the Wakefield Doctrine… resolving to work my way back to writing more frequently on the topic of everyone’s favorite personality theory.

9) so I was talking to someone about clarks and scotts and rogers today, and though it’s well-established that clarks really enjoy the vague allure of non-specific personal history, I mentioned one of my favorite odd memories from childhood. I was 5 or 6 at the time, I was giving a card to a family member (not sure who or what occasion… I’m thinking Christmas and probably parents). In any event, I recall that I signed the card: Clark Farley (which is funny, sure, but I distinctly recall that at the time, I took note of the fact that signing my full name on a card to an immediate family member wasn’t quite…. something. I did it anyway. I was, (and still am), very much a clark. I mentioned to this remembered observation to my friend, (she’s a scott with a secondary clarklike aspect), as she naturally she laughed. I then said to her, I said, “Damn! I could’ve written the Wakefield Doctrine on the basis of that one event, had I only had the insight that I had to wait a near lifetime to experience.”

10) The Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) states that ‘the completion of a list of ten items of gratitude does in fact constitute an item in and of itself and may be used as an Item of that selfsame list, conventionally and by common practice, Item 10′ op.cit. SR 1.3 [sub. 32.2]

* what’s not to love about blogging specifically and writing in general? I just realized the answer to my seemingly rhetorical question in Item #2! it’s Labor Day weekend on this side of the planet! btw, this jamais vu is surely behind my experience of ‘discovering’ connections between characters (and incidents) in ‘Blogdominion’ and now, increasingly in ‘Almira’… hell, if I knew writing was this much fun, I would’ve paid more attention in high school!

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Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: Personal, personality types, psychology of personality, relationships, the Wakefield Doctrine

-the Wakefield Doctrine- “and, as if that weren’t enough, Mercury is renegade!”

August 29, 2016 By clarkscottroger

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

(yeah…that little bastard in the left rear did, in fact, throw something at our hero, who is trying to take the proffered advice to ‘just ignore them and they’ll get bored and move on…’)

No! You’re absolutely correct! This is way out of the norm, this Monday-evening-into-god knows-when Post! But, what are you gonna do?

It’s not easy being a clark. Just ask Denise or Lizzi or Cynthia or Kristi* they’ll be all, “..well, it’s not bad. Life was never intended to be easy and like, everything handed out easy as can be and there are some good things, those good things (that we know we’re fortunate to have) are like crazy good things. and they make the not-good things worth the effort. And everything has a answer if we just pay attention. You did say that the Doctrine sent you, right?”

But the thing about the effort that clarks put into life, it just seems, sometimes (and we’re not complaining) that we make progress and then look up and find that nothing seems to have changed. At least to the extent that we’d hoped, given how much effort we put into it. scotts and rogers seem to have so much more fun. And we know that they’re working just as hard at life as we are (we know because of the Wakefield Doctrine’s ‘everything Rule’¹) they just seem more… confident, assured…whatever the opposite of ‘things will never change no matter what I do, I’ll always be like this’, is.

But for the fact that there is a Wakefield Doctrine.

What the Doctrine offers is:

all reality is, to a certain degree, personal. The world (and people and circumstances) I encounter each and every day is a reflection of what we call (my) predominant worldview. We are born with the potential of all three worldviews (that of the Outsider, the Predator and the Herd Member) and while we all end up in one (of these three, our predominant worldview) we never lose the capacity to experience the world as do the other two. and what that implies (and, in fact, means) is that when I think about self-improving myself, I don’t need to worry about whether or not the qualities I seek to add to myself are attainable or achievable. they are already part of me.

I just need to know it and accept it.

Thats it for tonight! Got to go finish editing Chapter 22 of Almira… be sure to read it tomorrow!

* Kristi Campbell, not Kristi Brockett Brierley. Kristi Brierley a roger (of the most excellent sort, i.e. a roger with a strong secondary clarklike aspect), while Kristi C is all kinds of clark (with a significant secondary scottian aspect)

1) the everything Rule states: everyone does everything, at one time or another. the point is that there probably is nothing that a clark might do that a roger or a scott would not (…well, hold that thought! lol) but seriously the everything Rule is meant to remind us that the Doctrine is all about ‘how we relate ourselves to the world around us’. So, it’s not the things we do that make us scottian or rogerian, it’s how we relate (ourselves) to those activities, interests, occupations, avocations celebrations. Do we experience them as ‘part of the herd’ or do we see them as ‘fast moving prey, dodging left and right’ or do we encounter the everyday activities and interactions of life and the world as if we were watching it all from afar? That’s what the everything Rule is about

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Six (0:01!) Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine-

August 4, 2016 By clarkscottroger

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

All kinds of ambitious, here at Doctrine Central, at 6:01 am Wednesday, the 3rd-of-where-the-hell-did-the-summer-go 2016

So the word of the week is ‘Minute’ (the word being the prompt, ‘of the week’ implying the recurring suggestion by zoe to write a story, a Six Sentence Story, using six and only six words).

“I promised I’d have you back to your cookout before anyone notices we’re missing, I need only one more minute,” his wife stood before the mirror, brushing long, passion-tangled hair, her reflection smiling at the man in the doorway.

Dark eyes, with a mix of love and passion, held him in a life-practiced embrace, head bent to the side as her brush fell through a dark waterfall of hair, that crashed softly on smooth pale shoulders.

“I bought you a tee-shirt,” he stepped behind her, holding out a gift that was now very different from what he bought on a whim, fortunately for him, enough of the young man within (just recently roused from life’s slumber), remained to banish his misgivings as he handed her the very small and very lightweight cotton tee-shirt, which had silk screened figure a woman on the front.

She looked, laughed affectionately and said, ‘Well, you’ve earned it, I’m willing to try it on,” pulled it over her head, adding, “I think I can manage by myself” through a veil of dark brown hair and sheer white cotton, as he ran his hands down from her shoulders.

As his hand gently caressed across the top of her right breast he encountered an obstruction, a slight rise, unnoticeable to the eye, almost even to the touch of his fingers, it seemed nothing more than a small bind in cotton fabric that refused to smooth out.

The reflection of her face in the mirror changed, like the last person to leave a boat caught in a suddenly rising tide, she held onto his hand and unable to prevent the distance from growing, he stepped to her side and together they watched, in the last seconds of the minute he foolishly thought was his to give, as their familiar life faded into the distance.

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TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

July 30, 2016 By clarkscottroger

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

What?

damn! where the hell did I leave that SOC headset!?!! (Item 1 the kind of mind that, after the previous sentence, replayed in ‘True-to-Life®‘ Seven-Year-Old-Hi-Fidelity, ‘You’d forget your head if it wasn’t tied on’).

Warning: Excessive randomosity (and other crimes-against-the-written-word) ahead! Yes, this is ‘one of those‘ TToT Posts!

Item 2: I grateful for having lost all rhetorical self-respect, and, for god know what reason, am comfortable passing the most errant nonsense as a well-meant and heart❤️felt TToT Post!

3) If anyone has CS Lewis’s heir’s phone number, please let me know! I need to make sure that our Founderess doesn’t not stumble across this Post without fair warning… she’s of exceptional patience and forbearance (particularly for our people*), but, damn! I’m getting ready to click ‘Next’ and I’m writing this!

Grat Item 4: remembering that, for me, the key to a successful day today is to balance: ‘you only live once, do it right’ and ‘you only live once, don’t mess it up’ and ‘you only live once, don’t worry, enjoy yourself!’

5) Una and Phyllis and the secret world

6) ‘Almira‘ hey! usually when I mention writing ‘Almira’ I’ll simply give a preview of this weeks Chapter. But, in case there are any new Readers (and, no, I’m not counting too heavily on return visits, lol) here’s a quick synopsis:

Dorothy Gale has been some strange places in her relatively short life. She has met very curious people, rallied her friends, fought off her enemies and still tries to be a good person. Problem is, she does not believe she knows who she really is and. worse, where she belongs. ‘Almira’ is the story of mis-understood people and discovering the truth about ourselves and the world we find ourselves in.

7) yeah, it’s called the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) and it’s one of the coolest, most fun things about this, ‘the bloghop-that-Lizzi-built’ and while zoe is our resident expert on all thing virginal (the Seven Guard Virgins, of course!) and is Curatoress of the BoSR/SBoR, allow me to say this: if you’re new to the TToT and you find yourself blocking on what to write, or whether what you want to write is appropriate, all you have to do is cite the SR (Secret Rule) Chapter and Verse (and include a short description of the Rule and why it applies, and you are golden.) Serially! Try it, it’s very fun.

8) work has been interesting of late, in it’s constant stress; the reason I cite the stress at work, (which is, of course, simply a part of the work I do), is that it allows me to practice learning to live right. (Having people with whom I can identify is totally the key to seeing the improvements that I have to date.)

9) Kristi for the amazing amount of work in beta reading ‘Blogdominion‘. I am aghast at what it was that I was asking of her! In my defense, this is my first story in need of beta reading and, having written it over the course of nearly six months, totally under-appreciated how much work would be involved. tres thank you, Kristi… (I would do a Capitalize everything joke here, but only Kristi would laugh… hopefully, …. someone remind me to send her a box of #2 pencils!)

10) SR 1.3 (which allows: ‘the completion of a List of Ten Items’ may serve as one of those self-same Ten Items. This accomplishment may be applied for the 10th Item only, unless there are Items that remain, unused and available for attribution.) (… hey! Item 7 Readers! like that)

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TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

July 23, 2016 By clarkscottroger

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

Again with the Weekend! The days are speeding up, but the temperature is remaining in a good, ‘hot enough for you?’ range.

This is, of course, the Ten Things of Thankful, ‘the bloghop that Lizzi built’. I describe it that way, not because anyone is depending on me to identify the creator of this thing of ours, but to remind myself of the power of the initial simple steps, (whenever) we set out to self-improve ourselves. Often, at least for me (and therefore most clarks), the hard part is not getting started on a path of improvement, it is remembering the success that I’ve achieved. Let me re-phrase that, when we succeed at improving ourself, (really truly, fundamentally), the new state becomes the ‘always state’. Our lives change. Which is what (many of us) are after. But the drawback is when life changes, reality changes, and the new me becomes the only real me. It takes a lot of imagination (and effort) to remember that old me, the pre-improvement me, not for any morbid or negative purpose, and certainly not for the ‘well, you’re really still that person, not this new person, purposes. The value in ‘remembering before’ is in the reinforcement of the efforts that went into getting to where we are now. We did it once, and we can do it again, (as in, further improvement).

Ok! I don’t know what brought that on, but I’m grateful that the hostinae at the TToT are so tolerant of my, less than rule-straight manner of writing.

2) (well, ’cause I got one right above… about the co-hostinae here at the TToT?) I appreciate that I still retain the tendency to, upon hearing a random, but odd phrase, be able to hold on to my initial reaction long enough to write it into a post. Item 3 that follows, came out of nowhere, earlier today, while in conversation with Denise about clarks…

3) the phrase: ‘clarks can be so low-self-standardized’ I laughed out loud when I heard me say that, as did Denise. Which, if you’re keeping up with your Wakefield Doctrine studies, this ‘startled laughter’ is one of the markers of the ‘rogerian expression’. I will leave it to you, the Reader, to go here and read up one of the truly charming qualities of our rogerian brethren.

4) credit to Una, when she goes out into the backyard, she’s clearly there to work. She sits, (upright, not like laying down), and faces out towards the woods. Keeping watch, of course.

5) credit to Phyllis for doing the things she enjoys, which included this week, the annual, ‘go to the beach after work and go swimming under the full moon’ (I”ll try to find the vid from last year’s swim).

6) the Graviteers. As a group, does what groups do best, (when groups are good), i.e. despite the vacations, they are all, collectively and one-at-time and alternately, sending in the photos every day (except Sunday). There are tons of demands on our time during this time of year, but not a day in the Summer has gone by without the photos arriving and being posted. good group

7) just completed an online seminar, (about how to write a Query Letter). Sent in my sample synopsis and sample letter, one more step up the road taken. They promise to send me a critique in a couple of weeks, which is the reason for this exercise, i.e. the critique, ’cause when I send out Query letters, agents do not send letters back, (at least I haven’t gotten a letter back), that include suggestions on how to make my query more effective.

8) Chapter 17 of Almira comin at ya this weekend. So, guess who’s coming to dinner? (that’s unfair, Chapter 17 will only set up the dinner at the Gale Farm, the actual dinner should not show up until Chapter 18. I’m kinda looking forward to the challenge, to have a Chapter entirely one scene, ‘dinner at the Gale Farm’. Long before and many degrees colder, Almira is on the mend, staying at Annie LoPizzo’s, although with the frequency of visits from Sterling Gulch, one might be forgiven for thinking that it was his apartment! You think he’s fallen hard for our Almira, or what? We also get to look in on Frederick Prendergast, busy keeping the Mills churning out the profit for the Essex Company and if people get hurt achieving his goals, well, there are plenty more where they came from, (mostly central and eastern Europe), (I mean a lot, like a majority of the population of Lawrence MA in the late 1800s, early 1900s were immigrants from Europe, attracted to the opportunity for work and the, relatively, decent living conditions).

9) (will have to spend more time) on the Book of Secret Rules (Secret Book of Rules), may come back a little later. It’s a real good thing.

10) (speaking of the BoSR/SBoR), SR 1.3 binyons!

Your hosts

A Fly on our (Chicken Coop) Wall, Amycake and the Dude, Considerings, Finding Ninee, Getting Literal, I Want Backsies, The Meaning of Me, Thankful Me, Uncharted, The Wakefield Doctrine

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