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Qucik response Monday! -the Wakefield Doctrine- (‘yeah, I do start every day with the Wakefield Doctrine on my mind’)

December 15, 2014 By

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

Drexel (who, fortunate human, Kristi, is part of pack with)

Drexel 

Two purposes for today’s brief Post:

  1. to follow-up on an Item in  Saturday’s Post that elicited several very good Comments
  2. to see if writing a Post, (with a certain deliberate intent) can serve as a way to focus my outlook on the current day
  3. because it’s fun and if I’m ever going to learn to do this writing thing as good as them folks I read, I guess I better practice, right?

The Item:

as a clark, I find that when I’m walking to the mailbox in the rain without a coat or in December without shoes, it helps me realize how important it is to appreciate what is. That I am not in a hospital bed, or in a wheel chair or in the house because I am not able to leave…. I find that I ‘enjoy’ the harsh feelings of the 30 degree morning in part when I can know that it is a very real possibility that someday I will be in a place where I look back on (these days) and wish to anything that I might again have the opportunity to do something as silly as walk to the mailbox without shoes or a coat in December.

The Comment:

Knowing cold does make one appreciate warm more. Maybe I need to walk to the mailbox in bare feet so I can appreciate the heat of the sidewalk in summer time?  (Kristi)

It is an interesting way to remain grateful for what you do have and an interesting way to create memories to look back on. That walking in the cold to the mailbox. Maybe a little masochistic .  (Fangboner)

It may seem odd for me to say that I agree with the first and (feel) the need to explain as to the second Comment.

This exercise (the walking, not the writing) is about leverage. In the world(view) of a clark there is a form of disconnect between the rational and the emotional. Not an absence of emotions and not a control of the rational. Both are quite there, simply not integrated….  wait, that’s getting too  er  clarklike.
Try this:  clarks think, scotts act and rogers feel.  yeah! that’s better.
The world that I woke up to this morning is a world in which the rational is the medium of expression for me. While for, say Kristi, the world is, among other things, a world in which emotions are the medium (and, possibly the message). Fine. Both equal, not being compared as which is better, they just are that way.

You know that thing about how there is one predominant worldview and we still have ‘the other two’ within? This is what the barefoot thing is really about. I know that I ‘live in my head’. I know that while that is the way it is, it is not necessarily the best way to live. So, while I might know this, I ask myself how do I alter it?  no, learning more about how to live is not the answer!  I’m already learning the shit out of things.  Anyone? Dyanne?  ‘Stop thinking and just live!!!’  yes, that is one answer.   Kristi  in her Comment actually gives us the answer, in her choice of words.  no, not the ‘knowing’ part. the ‘appreciating’ part. the emotional aspect of the experience.

(For a clark) to do what we’re talking about, requires emotional leverage. To find a way to generate feelings(emotions) in concert with knowing something.
I get that I should appreciate the day I have today. I understand that I should not act like I’m immortal today*. I know that the littlest thing I do and say and encounter and share today, may very well be a thing of priceless value to me someday. I know that there will come a time, when I’m on my deathbed and I (may) have a moment to reflect on my life. A life spent inside my head is not a bad thing, but it is not as good as a life spent thinking and acting and feeling.

ya know?

Thanks to Kristi and Fangboner and the others what Commented at the Doctrine this weekend.

 

* a reference to something that Castanada had his character don Juan Mateus say about living in the present and making decisions not as if I would get a chance to do it again, rather to act as if it were my only chance to act.  At least that’s how I read it.

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clarks -the Wakefield Doctrine- “…and the world out there.”

December 9, 2014 By

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

fence1

you know the weirdest thing about clarks? It’s not the funny little half-smile you see on their faces when they’re in the group you’re addressing, (and you know, for certain, that you have not said anything funny), it’s not the odd way that the female contingency  (mostly the women,  but not exclusively), choose to dress…  like a Fire Engine, bristling with emergency rescue equipment….painted a soft blue, it’s not even the way that clarks will be so quiet, even…no! especially when things all around are getting crazy…crazier …craziest, they seem to be apart, almost as if the (current) desperate situation that has the rogers fretting and the scotts shouting, causes them to grow… more, more of whatever it is they are…

…no, the weirdest thing about clarks is their morning time. (This is not necessarily literal. It is, necessarily, the time between demands and performance. The offstage moment, as the house lights go down). That is the strangest part of ‘the experience of the world from the personal-reality-perspective of clarks (the Outsiders).
It (seems) to be a time of choice, it is (often) a time of desperate hope, it is (always) a time of incredible … distance.
This distance is not as common and simple as physical distance (although, have you ever been in a crowd of people, say an elevator, where your attention is dominated by, say the floor you are intending to travel to, and then you notice that there is a person standing very-next-to-you? you wonder briefly how you could have not noticed them), and (this distance) is not an emotional gulf between people (although, there are times when you are prepared to accept that the person you care so much about  just is not invested in the relationship, and then you see an act of selflessness that takes your breath away), no, the distance is none of these.

the distance (for a clark) is the amazing and awful, frustrating and inspiring distance between the clark and themselves. They think (and think about thinking), they act (and appreciate/regret it as it occurs), they feel and wonder if it’s real.

Tuesday.

(jeez  good thing it’s dark and pouring rain outside!)

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Post #1 of the Work Week -the Wakefield Doctrine- (well, because that’s where our personality is under the harshest light)

December 8, 2014 By

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

images-40

the Workplace and the Wakefield Doctrine

Rule 1: Know your predominant worldview

Rule 2: Accept your predominant worldview

Rule 3: Know the predominant worldview (aka personality type) of the people around you

Rule 4: Remember! ‘the Wakefield Doctrine is for you, not them’

Rule 5: don’t forget: ‘when the going gets tough, the cause of it is coming from within’

Rule 6: Don’t get aggravated or annoyed, belligerent or beatific, avoid becoming caustic or (overly) conciliatory and, for god’s sake, don’t let yourself believe that you would feel any different, if only ‘they wouldn’t be like that‘!!!  No, I’m totally serious! The simple, unavoidable conclusion, when you take all that this here ‘personality theory’ here holds true and apply it to the life you lead, in the world around you, is that, when it comes to feelings and moods (and their illegitimate children, ‘attitude’), you are responsible for how you feel today. That’s the bad news. The good news is that, you’re responsible for how you feel! So, instead of letting your stomach twist itself into all sorts of interesting shapes, write a Comment here and let those of-a-like-worldview get aggravated for you!

The rest of this Post was to have been footnotes to the 6 Rules. They would have been fun and funny, insightful and aggravating.  However,  I’ve changed my mind and instead will instead  try to keep it simple and under 500 words, all in the interest of my getting to my own workplace on time.  The thing of it is, the personality type most likely to see that the Doctrine as applying to their world, is also the personality type (aka worldview) that will have the most difficulty ‘getting it to work’. At the same time, the ‘other two’ personality types will have less of a sense that any of this is necessary, paradoxically they will find the insights relatively easy to apply!  go figure, huh?

Well, since you put it that way… we have. and, big surprise, the personality type to see the Doctrine as useful and difficult is/are those Outsiders (clarks). But, while it takes them a little longer, the benefit will be all the greater/more significant! Just so you scotts and rogers don’t go away empty handed, or feel that this Post favors clarks, I’ll let you in on a little secret: the most difficult part of using the Wakefield Doctrine as a tool for self-improving oneself is that the key lies in recognizing others of your own worldview, observing how they act and interact and accepting the fact that their actions (and interactions) are simply their best effort to deal with the world as they are experiencing it.  (I just lied. the real  ‘most difficult part’ is to see another person of your worldview and realize that you are living and acting in the world pretty much as they are… for better or worse, ya know?)

Ok! less than 500 words!

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TToT the Wakefield Doctrine (it’s St Nicholas’ Day… what do you get for the person who gives all the gifts?!)

December 5, 2014 By

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

(I really liked this scene from Henry V, but Saint Crispins Day is no where near December)

(I really liked this scene from Henry V, but Saint Crispins Day is no where near December)

Don’t tell me that this is, like, what the 3rd of 4th Christmas that we’ve been doing the Ten Things of Thankful? I am terrible at remembering the passage of time, (though I’m genuinely gifted at anticipating the passage of time), but it seems like only last Summer that Lizzi started this bloghop. (Though she did not start it in December), the theme of gratitude for the simple things seems to resonate even more as we get towards the end of the calendar.

(…no, Christine! no need to be concerned! lol just the words that are coming out of my keyboard, everything here is fine.  …why no, Dyanne, I did not hire a ghostwriter….)(lol)

1) this, the wonderful Christmas Season with love abounding…. (yeah, I am screwing around now… but come on, for a minute there, as you read this… didn’t the hair on the back of your neck start to go up, just a little?)

2) I do appreciate the …er  open-mindedness here at the TToT,  one of the more inspired  things about this little weekly get together is the sense of fun, the willingness to laugh at nearly everything

3) oh! new Readers!!  (hey, I may have mentioned this before), but though I’ve gone at length about how this ‘hop is not only one of the best bloghops in the ‘sphere, but is also the best of all the ‘Gratitude blogs’… (yes, I am, in fact, prepared to back that statement up), I’ll bet there’s not another gratitude blog that allows a list to include items of ‘hypo-gratitude’. Well, we do because, sometimes there are weeks when things simply suck. There are times when the negative seems to outweigh the positive. Fact of life. The TToT recognizes this, and if you find yourself at the end of ‘the week from hell’ and think, ‘I better not even try to participate in the TToT, too much bad happened this week‘, allow us to say, ‘hell no! write the words, hypo-gratful or not‘.

4) It was a decent work week, the number of times I remembered to remember that ‘Stress is really Fear, dressed up like a really hot woman’ is increasing, which is an improvement.

5) Have I mentioned the Wakefield Doctrine yet?  Actually #4 made me remember how, in the early days of the Doctrine blog, insights were often expressed in totally inflammatory ways.. provocative for it’s own sake, for the fun of it. Gots to get back to that kind of thing in my Posts

6) My co-hostinae, for their patient support of my efforts to learn to write an orderly and coherent 10 Item List

7) Phyllis and Una, of course.   They are constants, not in a take-for-granted-way, but more in the ‘in-comparison-to-the-worldview-of-a-clark’ sense. clarks live in a reality that would not be tolerable to a scott or a roger. the reality of a clark is that there is nothing that can be counted on to always remain the same (no, really, sometimes, in the case of the example you’re thinking of, we simply don’t think about the possibility that that would change. ya know?)

8) hey, do enjoy the Friday Night Vidchats… tonight is a little slow  but on the plus side, I’m almost done with this Post and it’s not even Saturday

9) be sure to not forget that the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) is there to be used!  …try it out, see if you can get away with it….nothing to worry about! (other than the Seven Guard Virgins)

10) done! damn I’ll have the whole morning (5:30 to 9:30am) to do nothing?

11)  thmb54824079dd336  Susan Z Surprise Question/Item 11!!   

you have to get up to go to the kitchen and get a drink of water, and let the dog/cat/iguana/goldfish out…

  • what is the time of night that you least hope to show on your alarm clock when you get out of bed?

  • is that clock, like right there next to your side of the bed? or is it elsewhere in the room

  • do you try to wake anyone up (or at least get confirmation that they are still alive) before you get up to go to the kitchen?

 

Ten Things of Thankful

 

 Your hosts

Join the Ten Things of Thankful Facebook Group



* no, not just that Lizzi had a scottian friend who nearly dove through the monitor at me, when I first started writing Comments on Considerings, to make sure I wasn’t some kind of creep. Won’t mention any names, other than to say her name rhymes with ‘Kristine’  lol

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‘of here and then’ the Wakefield Doctrine (…an idle moment in the day of a clark)

December 4, 2014 By

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

(saw this in a couple of sites, but I think the source is: www.tn4me.org

(saw this in a couple of sites, but I think the source is: www.tn4me.org)

Had an odd* thought yesterday.** I was driving through a rural part of the state in late morning and the weather was not very nice. There was a slight drizzle and the temperature was in the low to mid 40s. I happened to glance into the woods that lined the road, and the thought came to me, “oh man! if I lived here in the 1400’s I would not be enjoying today. There’d be no place to go inside to get out of the weather….”

Given that all I had to do for the next 20 minutes was to guide several thousand pounds of metal, over twisting and turning country roads, at velocities not achieved by the human race until the early 20th Century, it was only natural I should think,  “Imagine being an aboriginal clark living in this part of New England during the Early Woodland Era! damn!” (sure, go ahead and do some wavy images things in your head for a visual… )

We can easily imagine the lives of scotts at such a point in history. Hell, this era would have been paradise for our Predatory friends!  (“Hey Still-waters-run-Deep  I want you to meet a cousin of mine, she’s a little …. no! she didn’t have to leave her village, come on! don’t be scared!“)  Yeah, scotts would have done well.
Even rogers would have had a place in society in the pre-historic New England,  (“psst,  did you hear what they are saying about that girl from the other village… well, if I even thought to do that, I would hide my head… you don’t think she’s prettier than me, do you?“)

But clarks.  We know there were clarks in the neo-post-archaic-woodland New England. But  how did their days go? I mean, an Outsider is an Outsider no matter what the year is, but at some points of history there was a fairly lethal side to not being a part of… (“he’s your son too! tell him to come back out of the forest and stand up straight and not mumble, your uncles’s cousin is a nice girl who would be perfect for little ‘runs Deep’)

 

 

* odd adjective, \ˈäd\  :

1. unusual or peculiar in appearance, character, etc
2. occasional, incidental, or random: odd jobs.
3. leftover or additional: odd bits of wool.
4. being part of a matched pair or set when the other or others are missing: an odd sock; odd volumes.
5. out-of-the-way or secluded: odd corners.
7. odd man out a person or thing excluded from others forming a group, unit, etc

a quality of thought or, even, an act or action which varies (according to the ‘Everything rule’1) as perceived by each of the three personality types:

  • rogers: ” …probably bad, no, wait you said odd, as in different and not like anything else? well, that’s certainly not good, that’s for certain…but maybe, did it say anything about me?”
  • scotts: ” …hey! hold up a second…. is it a threat?  is it a threat that can be chased away?  neither… maybe it will run away when the others don’t? that might be fun”
  • clarks: ” …hmmm, interesting, similar to what, precisely? maybe there’s something, well, not exactly like the others but still…oh yeah, I see! wouldn’t that be nice”

** yeah, I know!

1) ‘the Everything rule, (short for: ‘everyone does everything at one time or another‘) holds that an experience or an occupation, a blind date or a surgical procedure, giving birth and riding a bike are all parts of life and are experienced by everyone (well, mostly everyone…I haven’t ridden a bike in I can’t tell you how long)… the value in this rule is that it can simplify the use of the Wakefield Doctrine, as a tool for better understanding the people in our lives.
Very often a person will say,  ‘hey my son wants to be a professional skier, but he can’t get his head out of the books, isn’t professional skier a scottian job?‘ or perhaps you might have a friend come up to you in the dressing room at the Y and confide in you that they have to see a specialist, but can’t make up their mind which of  2 physicians to choose. They proceed to describe one as: precise, well- informed, concise, well, just a little rigid but the wall of their office was covered with diplomas and everything  while  the second specialist, well, they made (your friend) laugh and seems very confident, but kept being interrupted and seemed a touch impulsive…. which should they choose? (You are being asked, because your friend knows you have this ‘Doctrine thing’ that makes you able to read minds or something, fun at social occasions, helpful in emergencies but, sometimes, a little ….creepy.)

the Everything rule simply reminds us to put ourselves in the worldview of the other person. This is not easy, it takes much study and learning of the characteristics of each of the worldviews, but when we do, we see that sometimes a cigar is not just a cigar

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