relationships | the Wakefield Doctrine - Part 16 relationships | the Wakefield Doctrine - Part 16

Too/Two/To-sday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

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

So, we’re in the midst of wrestling with the issue of how to approach the big Six Sentence Café & Bistro ‘Poetry Slam’ that will be happening at the Six Sentence Story bloghop the day after tomorrow.

You’re all invited to stop by and watch (aka ‘read’) the fun. Or, if you’re so inclined, participate. (We’ll drop a ton ‘o links at the bottom of this post to better spread the word.)

For anyone not familiar with the context of the venue, the Six Sentence Café & Bistro is a virtual …err Café & Bistro? Don’t want to say, ‘metaphorical’ because, while that was the basis of it’s creation and earliest iterations, it has, by virtue of the same magic that, (were you a certain age), and you were driving in your car and saw a sign on a roadside restaurant that read ‘Arnold’s’ or (switching to a more urban setting) ‘Cheers’ (with steps down from a Boston sidewalk) or in the middle of rural america and and came upon ‘the Double Deuce’ you’d know what the inside looked like before you got out of your car.

That, through the mgic of ‘repetition’ in the virtual world is what we have with the SSC&B

It’s a place to go where you can count on it being the same anytime you visit.

But that’s not the original theme of today’s post. (That said, if you need directions or interior descriptions don’t hesitate to feel free to ask: Denise or Mimi or Tom or Nick or Ford or Chris or Jenne for descriptions of the ‘physical’ setting.

but, it’s a short-post morning, so we need to be brief.

The Wakefield Doctrine is a perspective on the world around us and the people who make it up. It proposes that, instead of a menu of characteristics and typical behavior and tropisms that, when assessed will result in a score that puts a person into (a) personality type, the Doctrine relies entirely on the nature of (a) person’s relationship to the world. We have three ‘personality types’: clarks(Outsider), scotts(Predator) and rogers(Herd Members). The parenthetical is the hint as to the relationship, the names are the fun part.

Anyway. We’re born with the three, settle into one, but retain the potential of ‘the other two’. (Still with me?)

The beauty part of the Doctrine is, accepting that a child can perceive themselves as one half of the three relationships, it’s not a stretch to imagine that, when I was growing up an Outsider, the behaviors for interacting with the world would reflect that perception. As a result, one can say, I have the best personality given the nature of the reality I grew up in. (New Readers? That’s where the quality within yourself comes to the fore. If you’re still reading, then one of your traits is to enjoy playing with ideas, imagining things for the fun of it and simple intellectual flexibility. Welcome to the Doctrine. Your friends on the out-wave of the swinging exit door? Don’t worry about them. They’ve already forgotten or decided this was stupid. We’ll just keep with ourselfs, ok?

damn! Still didn’t get to the topic!

The topic was to have been: the role and effect of secondary and tertiary aspects as manifested in the Wakefield Doctrine.

While we said that everyone has one and only one predominant worldview (clark, scott or roger) we retain the capacity to experience the world from the perspective of ‘the other two worldviews’. It is a potential, not necessarily an actual. Some people are all predominant worldview, others a predominant with a significant secondary or tertiary (worldview).

In the interest of time and the fading hope of tying this to the intended topic, in the context of the preceding, I’m a clark (predominant worldview) with a significant secondary aspect (scott) and a weak tertiary aspect (roger).

I’ll be participating in the online ‘Poetry Slam’. And enjoying it.

That is an example of how secondary aspects manifest, when using the additional perspective on the world around us and the people who make it up.

 

ok

 

Share

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

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.

Hosted by Denise, ruled by a single rule: To use the prompt word and keep it to six sentences in length.

Speaking of rules. If you’re thinking, “Those people at that virtual Café seem to be out for some creative writing fun, and taking part in a weekly prompt-word bloghop what I do, I owe it to myself to check out this ‘Poetry Slam’ next week. I wonder if there’s any special format or pretext or what-have-you.”

Good News: No rules (other the usual limit on sentenceses).  Short, free-form poems. Any topic. Length: the written equivalent of a couple of minutes spoken.

One interesting question  beginning to surface: ‘Being a Six Sentence Story do we have to ‘write ourselves into the setting (the Café & Bistro)?’ And, (follow-up question), is there any requirement to use a character/avatar or can it be pretty much, ‘Hey! Here’s my poem’.

All of the above.

Let us know in Comments any additional questions or suggestions. In the event you’re planning to attend the Slam ‘in person/character’ and you haven’t read enough about the Six Sentence Café & Bistro itself, feel free to ask: Denise or Mimi or Tom or Nick or Ford or Chris or Jenne for descriptions of the ‘physical’ setting.

The prompt word:

VALET

“Shit! People are actually going to show up here next Thursday…” the tall, thin man looked around at the sea of empty tables half-surrounding the small stage positioned midway along the interior wall of the Six Sentence Café & Bistro;

The twentieth of April…”

“Thanks a lot, Nick, way to alleviate my sky-rocketing performance anxiety,” both Tom and Nick laughed, the Sophomore, at the far end of the room slicing lemons at the bar, looked up, “What’s so funny…” and Hunga, cocking his head, barked three times, the canine equivalent of ‘all righht!

Hello …anyone here?” Frank Hubney called out in a moderately-moderate voice from the vestibule, (after taking a moment to neaten the skewed stack of  ‘The WatchTower’s and a handful of ‘SeventhDay Monthly’ covering the top of the cigarette machine, before stepping up to the near end of the bar;  “I heard there was a poetry slam here next week and,” the man with a relaxed posture and sharp eyes looked down at the floor before continuing, “Well, I’m kind of a wordsmith and I thought I’d scope the place out ahead of time.”

The tall, thin man jumped up from his chair, “Perfect timing, with your arrival I have a reasonable premise to provide a description of the Café for anyone thinking they’d ‘write themselves into the scene’ when they perform next week.”

What?”

Tom and Nick, still sitting at the table, were shaking their heads slowly; the Sophomore appeared to be totally caught-up in arraying the slices of lemon he just cut into a perfect crescent; the laptop on the table in an alcove on the opposite wall flared into light and Chris appeared on the screen, clearly deep in thought and from the dark end of the bar, Mimi and Denise stepped into the light, preceded by “No, you tell him or, better yet, if Ford ever gets out of the bathroom, we’ll get him to do it.”

“Wait a minute now, being converted from a granite and brick textile mill, the area is still more abandoned lots, pawnshops and storefront street missions than it is upscale entertainment district, maybe I should arrange for valet parking,” a pause was broken by good nature’d laughter, a goulash of: ‘Get outa town‘; ‘cher, do not worry so much‘; ‘sacre bleu‘; ‘so, I do have the right address‘ and the felt-against-wood thumping of a happy dog’s tail.

*

Share

Photo-prompt Phriday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

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

So, we got an email yesterday (or, maybe it was today) from Jenne and C.E. inviting us to join them (and others) in their sophomore edition of their new bloghop! Guess they have’t quite had enough of the Doctrine’s brand of wtf!?! writing.

We admit to be honored and confused as one of our hosts pens the most insightful of stories and the other, well there’s no accounting for a skilled writer’s capacity to engage with the ‘Lines?!! What lines… the colors go wherever my crayon touches down… you got a problem with that?!!‘  variety of fictioneer. (lol)

The rules? A photo and a 250 word limit.

It’s fun and you couldn’t ask for better company. Please do not allow our being invited to affect your decision to join in.

 

Photo prompt:

 

“No way!”

Moving quickly to either side, careful not to scuff the suitcase, my initial assessment remains the same: Zero-sum game. Over. None of this is making sense and, had I a thicker skin, I’d remove all traces of being here and find my way back.

“Shit!”

Action not only speaks louder than words, it sharpens our eyesight the better to detect novel options almost always hidden in the future. My downfall is far less dynamic, except in its insidious power to push the world to arm’s length; to insist on the distorted information inherent in all memory, distant and ‘what-the-hell’ immediate.

“Goddamnit!”

Ok, ok better. Stay with the ‘un-civilized’ response. That way, like it or not, is the way of free will. Well, not stuck in the same rut of self-destruction, at any rate. The ladder, now moving, appears to be elongating, like one of those trompe l’oeil things drawn by someone with both talent and the Will to try and chart their own course in life.

“Screw this…”

The amount of concrete and masonry did wonders for amplifying the metallic clatter as I walk away. Free Will it is. Even with the distance growing, the aggressively sad part of my mind would not be silent,

Did you hear that? It sounded like a voice.’

 

 

*

Share

Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

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

New Year.

Same goal.

Write and explain (to), inform and make available the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine to as many people as possible.

Lets get all Lombardi on this theory.

The Wakefield Doctrine is a(n) additional perspective on the world around us. As such, it makes available one more tool for understanding the other person and, most of all, allowing ourselfs to see the world as they are experiencing it. (Because, the thing of it is? Reality, to a small but certainly significant extent, is personal. A tree is always falling in the forest. How many people are there is not as important and the idea, the opportunity, to imagine something that may…or may not, be a big-assed crashing sound.

There are three ways to experience the world (the Wakefield Doctrine tells us):

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

even more important to your, Mr./Mrs./Miss/Master/You use of this perspective is that we grow up in the reality of one, (and only one), of these personal realities and learn to live in the world. aka develop our style and strategies for getting along/going along/living/letting live and well, having the best life we are capable of. The Wakefield Doctrine maintains that we all have the best possible personality type because of the character of our reality.

enough theory!

Learn the characteristics of the three personal realities (personality types). (Don’t worry, they not only are fun, but they are self-teaching! No! Really! If you learn a part of the fundamentals of the Doctrine, even if you stop and hit that ‘Delete’ button on your Bookmarks…. (‘the heck with this crazy-ass, but oddly seductive system of categorizing people‘)… the rest of the Doctrine will unfold.

Hey, we used to warn New Readers earlier in a diatribe, but better late than never.

Warning: If you learn the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine to the extent and level of understanding that allows you to see and otherwise identify the three personality types (clarks, scotts and rogers) you may find, going forward, you are unable to not see the three personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine. (the Outsider: ‘Geez she seems pretty down to earth but…. who said combat boots are an accessory to a LBD?’ the Predator: ‘Shhh! He’s the life of the party, don’t establish eye contact!‘ and the Herd Member: ‘Does everyone who works here really call your SOP ‘the Bible’?)

Unlike many of the more popular personality schema, the Doctrine is for personal use only. It is not intended, (“Honey? Come read this quiz… it has you down to a ‘T’ come on answer the questions“) as a mirror-shaped club.

The true ambition of the Wakefield Doctrine is to help us better appreciate how we relate ourselves to the world around us.

With the proper use of the Wakefield Doctrine, you will know more about the other person than they know about themselves.

…no, really!

Share

Wednesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

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

A little bit of the ‘Hey, you know, we’re still wanting to do interviews of interesting people and such, just like they do in the ‘real’ world. Let’s go find one to reprint today! (ed. All kinds of appropriate content this morning, seeing how we’re trying to get something together for the Six Sentence Story bloghop, what has a submission deadline of today at six o’clock. And all. yeah, the formatting/spacing is a little clunky but I’m running out of time… so, consider it a touch of the patois, you know, the authentic artifact… same reason there’s a large segment of the audiophile demographic who buy vinyl records. lol)

Here’s something we found.

Our first online interview post. It was with Mel, one of the first Friends of the Doctrine (blogroll-istically speaking). His blog, ‘Spatula in the Wilderness’ was a most excellent read. And… and! Mel was one of the first to show up in these pages wearing a Wakefield Doctrine hat (‘on his damn head’).

Strong of heart and true to her name

We have a treat today, an Interview with (Friend of the Doctrine), Mel Thompson, creator of the Spatula in the Wilderness! (…cough…cough…) who has taken time out of his busy schedule to talk with us…(…I have a question!!… ) As everyone knows, the Spatula was the first blog to put the Doctrine on it’s blogroll and certainly has helped our efforts to bring the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers to the world. (…ahem…they can see me…even if you don’t… ).

After having consulted with the Progenitors and DownSprings, what we have today is (…imaginary?…define imaginary! hey this guy has a whole staff with…no, I do not intend to sit down and listen…well alright…since you ask.. )…what harm can it do?…alright Miss Sullivan, here are the questions….yes, you can leave the parentheses at your desk and come up here…(…what?, ok  I’ll stay in brackets…please…now if you will, the Readers are waiting….)
CSR: Hello Mr. Mel. Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers). We appreciate your ‘coming by’ and talking to us about blogs and such things.
Mel: Thanks so much for ‘having me over’ to talk about blogs. I also would like to thank all of you for the kind words regarding the firstaversary (nice term you’ve coined with that one) of Spatula and for mentioning my blog in your post The Wakefield Doctrine (…”The Time Has Come,” the Walrus said, “To Talk of Many Things”). You’ve been extremely supportive of Spatula over the past year and I really am grateful to you and your readers for all of the visits and great comments.
CSR: So, If I may start by saying am a big fan of  Spatula in the Wilderness. Is this your first blog?
Mel: Again, thank you. This is actually not my first blog. Five years ago I started a blog which took off too quickly for my own good and I pulled the plug on it. In my naivety, I fired off an e-mail to the administrators at the Big Friendly Corporate Entity asking them to promote my blog after the first week. To my surprise, the site advertised the blog generously (more importantly, at no cost to me). I busied myself with the running of the blog and stopped composing quality posts. Live, and/or learn, I guess.
CSR: Are you working on your own there? (other than Otto and them)…and just where is there (geographically speaking)
Mel: Cue Eric Carmen’s All By Myself.  The imaginary chimp typing pool and inflatable editor aside, the blog is just me. When anything with the blog goes wrong, I’d love to be unaccountable and pass the buck, but I am responsible for the whole shebang. Geographically, I’m writing from the Southwest corner of Michigan. I live and work about 20 minutes from the lovely campus of Notre Dame University and a little over an hour East of Chicago. Saint Joseph, the lakeside  community I call home, is situated adjacent to the tough little town of Benton Harbor (the strained relationship is portrayed in Alex Kotlowitz’ book The Other Side of The River).
CSR: (I gotta ask)…Where/how do you get your ideas (lol)  We have mentioned it in the past Posts, the volume of your work is rather impressive.
Mel: Oddly enough, there is a process to writing the Spatula. I usually trundle over to the computer shortly after 5:00 in the morning and sift through headlines on The Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and maybe a few minutes of Morning Joe. Usually, I let ideas rattle around for a day, or so, unless there is some story that feels immediate. Many times, I put the topics on a whiteboard and just walk by them until something clicks.  NPR ran a story the other day about a guy who’d been run over in a cross walk and the name on his driver’s license was Lord Jesus Christ. While it would have been fun to riff on that for 500 words, I am learning not just to shoot fish in a barrel. Most days, personal pondering and my befuddlement with the world trumps anything in the news cycle, anyway.
CSR: (the Progenitor roger is working on a semi-solo project, a ‘written in installments’ novel/story thing (contributions on a rotating basis by other DownSprings and Progenitors)  and he asked me to extend an invitation to you to join in on one or more chapters or segments. I will get more info if you think you might want to join in the fun…(work in progress, I have it in the Features Column as Chronicles of roger (working title)…
Mel: I’d love to be involved with contributing to roger’s solo project and it would be a lot of fun to add pieces. ‘Looking forward to hearing the details.
CSR: You work alone?…that sounds so relaxing (relative to working with, say…Progenitors and DownSprings)…(if ever you would like to borrow one or two…just ask..)
Mel: Writing alone can be cathartic and helps clear the board if I’m extremely vexed. Having said that, I am working out a way to take on contributors this year (details to follow and invitations will be forthcoming). I would love to keep on with a pace of three to four posts per week, but I think the blog suffers a bit. It will be exciting to post quality writing by others that fits into the Spatula cannon.
CSR: Do you get much culinary related emails? From what I see out there  food is a popular topic for blog writers…
Mel: I still write often about ‘food porn’ and the industry’s push to sell unhealthy products at any cost. Those posts generate some mail and I’d like to keep going with the theme. When I started last year, the idea was to write a cooking and recipe related blog, but I squashed the idea. This was at the time when Julie Powell’s success had a Sgt. Pepper effect on blogging. Becoming a chef and writing the next food masterpiece were just a mouse click away, and there seems to be a renaissance of food writing on the internet. I respect the recipe bloggers tremendously, but it does present an unrealistic vision of the restaurant and hospitality industry. It’s a joy to see someone’s elaborately produced dish on a website, but I always want to ask if they can produce it 25 times a night exactly the same for months on end. I always refer anybody who is serious about cooking to Bill Buford’s book Heat and Anthony Boudain’s Kitchen Confidential.
CSR: One of my favorite Posts at the Spatula (which sounds awful now that I see it in print), was “Wedded Bliss” (loved your answer to the question (paraphrasing here) about favorite marriage related movies: being Burning Bed.) Did you get much mail on that one?
Mel: Wedded Bliss was one of the only times that I post-scripted a blog with a retraction the next day. My wife Lori was really ticked at the time, because I made fun of the class. When I said the line about Burning Bed and Kramer Vs. Kramer, my friend, a local morning hard rock deejay, was sitting beside me in class and afterward said “Dude, I wouldn’t have even gone there.” I squeaked out of that blog post without too much negativity and got out of the doghouse at home fairly quickly.
CSR: Speaking of real life, how is it for your friends and family in terms of support for your work…(‘clark! can you complete a single sentence without the words Doctrine or gottafinishthisPost, is often heard around my house…)
Mel: I go through the same issues at home. For instance, what led to the birth of ‘Daisy’ started with one of those conversations involving “You love your blog more than us.” Overall, though, I’ve had a lot of support from my wife and her family, my little group of friends in the community and friends from high school and college on Facebook.
CSR: Well, thank you very much for coming by!  We are still working on the fashion center and we look forward to adding any Spatula Fashion if that is possible.
(oh!, oh! sorry, DownSpring#1 wants to know if you want a hat (for your damn head) and she says “yes, you do have to pick one of the three”)
Mel: Oh, I absolutely want a hat! The hats (I dig the #3 headwear) are great and I totally want to wear, with pride, some Wakefield Doctrine swag! I will send along shirts when they are ready mid-summer. Again, I appreciate you having me here and your questions.
CSR: Any parting advice or tips to any or the Readers out there (can translate to Slovenian if necessary) on blog writing, life, cooking or all of the above?
Mel: On blog writing, I can only repeat some good advice I got several months ago and that’s to just write often about whatever moves you on a particular day. The response from others is often surprising. Life boils down to what one of my college professors was famous for saying: “You’ll have a good day, whether you know it, or not.” Stay positive, and don’t let negativity rule your existence. Finally, as for cooking, go with medium heat. Turn the dial down and let the food cook. See you around the Doctrine!

*

Share