relationships | the Wakefield Doctrine

Reprint Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

October 25, 2021 By clarkscottroger

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

No! Wait! This isn’t what you think!! …we;;, guess it kinda is

Surely there is an appropriate reprint somewhere in the years of Doctrine posts that will exemplify the feeling of a rainy Monday, still-dark-at-6:45 morning.

I think I know of one, hold on…

Got it!

New Readers! This is from the first year of writing this blog. It’s interesting to note the core ideas are very much in evidence, i.e. while we are all born with the potential to experience the world as would the Outsider(clark), the Predator(scott) or the Herd Member(roger), and, at an early age, settle into one and only one predominant worldview. Further, we never lose the potential, the capacity, to see the world, (however briefly), as do ‘the other two’. That said, there is only one predominant worldview, we’re only one of the three.

There are no clark-roger/roger-scott/etc hybrids. The reason is simple: to grow and mature means to learn and practice ways, behavior styles and social strategies to interact with the world in which we find ourselfs and negotiate the path of our lives. The Wakefield Doctrine is, at its heart, about the relationship of the individual to the world around them and the people who make it up. How, for example, I relate myself to the world around me, corresponds to that of the Outsider. It is not simply that I have a list of characteristics of traits and tropisms that correspond to the profile of a clark. The world that I experience is that of the Outsider. I began to learn, (at some very early age), what worked best when confronting such a world and have been practicing, ever since. The world and I relate to each other as would an Outsider.

From December 3rd 2009:

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, (After all, you know something about us here at the Doctrine because of the information we are throwing out into the world by way of this blog.)…

…Look back on your life. Try and recollect 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 (job title, 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, with a life that is yours and yours alone. You know, even without the names, you lived in one place (or many different places), you knew some people (or a lot of people) and you spent your waking time doing this (or doing that).
Your ‘life story’ runs from the first (and often sketchy) times you remember as a child through and right up to now.

Pretty goddamn ‘straight’ line isn’t it?
(Come on roger, stop protesting. You what I mean. You are capable of this.)
Look at your life in terms of how many different interests and activities and ways of investing your time is evidenced. 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 than 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’, the essential nature and character, if you will, is the same today(as you read this blog) 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 correct, scott. roger you can come back in 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…)

Alright, alright. Seeing that we have some new visitors (from Italy and Sweden and Ghana to name a few) and, of course, Sloveniaaa is in da house!! I will try to impart or at least ‘duct tape’ some kind of coherent point to this Post.

If pressed, I would have to say the point of this (Post) is that our essential natures, (clarks, scotts 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 (yeah! he said predicated, he must be back from wherever…) 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. In fact, that really is the purpose of the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers).

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

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

October 16, 2021 By clarkscottroger

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

This is the Ten Things of Thankful (TToT) bloghop. Each week we join other writers and bloggers of like-mind and describe our lives/worlds/reality/and-people-places-and-things that have elicited a reaction/response of gratitude. (Since the previous week’s TToT*)

1) Phyllis

2) Una

3) The ‘new yard’ that is the product of all the tree work we had done. It’s hard to convey how much Una likes it. She plain enjoys sitting in the yard, relishing the responsibility for her newly manifested domain.

4) the Six Sentence Story a place to read (and practice the brief art of flash fiction).

5) the Wakefield Doctrine. Because, in the personal reality of a clark, (or a scott (or) a roger with a sufficiently pronounced, (aka annoying), secondary clarklike aspect), it helps to have a framework. Or, a better way to put it: picture an old calligraphic map, torn-linen edges, almost too-age blurry and significant-looking, with little, tiny, map legends and keys reading, ‘Relatively Safe Here‘, ‘Don’t Dawdle‘ and ‘Remember not to answer anyone who asks, what right to you have to pass through here‘.

6) serial story writing… it’s kinda like daydreaming in public. Go read, (and then subscribe for upcoming chapters), our two semi-interconnected serials, ‘the Case of the Missing Fig Leaf‘ and ‘the Whitechapel Interlude‘ My weak, bordering-on-appendix-level-relevance, tertiary rogerian aspect** wants me to type: And then tell us what you like about these stories…

But, I’m not going to.

7) ‘Oh, deep in our heart we do believe, We shall undermine someday.‘ (Apologies to fans of traditional gospel… we’ll add a music vid, by way of amends)

8) something, something

9) check back for update on the project

10) Secret Rule 1.3 Simply put: if you get anywhere in the vicinity of Grat Item(s) 7 and 8, the feeling that engenders totally qualifies for this, Number 10!

* and, fortunately for some of us, more rorschachian-inclined, post-writers, the shackles of Chronos are laying in the dusty road behind us, along with: a college degree with immediate economic utility, the offer of an apprenticeship in a practical trade and the un-requited love of countless real and imaginary figures in a to-remain-unpublished autobiography.

** anyone not here for the very first time: you have the tools, use ’em.

music video (Doesn’t happen that often, two songs with same title)

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: relationships, the Wakefield Doctrine, three personality types, Understanding Human Behavior

Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

October 4, 2021 By clarkscottroger

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

It might be smart, (and certainly narrativistic*), to open this post with: ‘the original goal of this blog was to expose as many people as possible to the fun and (the) benefits of the Wakefield Doctrine’. That would be accurate at a certain level, but would be leaving out an awful lot about the experience of writing these posts**.

The reason for starting this blog is lost in the silent, disorienting applause of hitting ‘Publish’ on the first post.

(Certain friends might mark the start of the magic that has brought us to this, the 2378th(ish) Wakefield Doctrine post as ‘the conscious decision to begin typing’.)

Be that as it may, while the Wakefield Doctrine has not, as of yet, become a household name, there are new Readers who encounter us and, perhaps not writing in and asking ‘Hey! I saw some photos on this page. Where does a Reader have to go to get a hat for our own damn heads?’ Stick around for a while. As the old blogger once said, ‘As long as there are new Readers, a blog will never disappear’.

Enough with the metaphysics!

The thing of it is, the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine will provide a person with one more perspective on the world around them and the people who make it up. If you nod and think, ‘ok, can’t be any harm in that and maybe this one will be the one’, we’ll say, ‘Welcome clark‘.

lol

A little insider info for the New Reader: doesn’t matter what you or anyone else thinks, if you can see the clarks, scotts and rogers in your world today we can promise two things: a) you’re a clark or you’re a scott or roger with a significant secondary clarklike aspect*** and 2) there’s a real good chance you won’t be able to not see the clarks, scotts and rogers in your world now. But stick around and we promise you won’t stay angry.

Quick bullet point of the three ‘personality types’ of the Wakefield Doctrine:

clarks(the Outsider) if you wake up thinking about the world ‘out there’ awaiting you, you’re probably a clark. You don’t mind being different from everyone you know, as long as it doesn’t become a topic of someone else’s conversation. You know you’re weird, but have friends that don’t seem to mind. And, besides, today might be the day you find that missing piece of knowledge that will tell you how to be a real person.
scotts(the Predator) you don’t wake up the way other people you know… they seem to take their time and wait to see what happens to them next. You don’t think you’re different from ‘most everyone you know, in fact, it kinda makes the day more exciting, if you think about it. Which you don’t. Life is short, but doesn’t seem to be letting up, so you going to live the hell out the today.
rogers(the Herd Member) you get up at the best time, the world around you like a warm quilt, (with the occasional jerk pulling the covers off your legs or pushing the pillow too high). You know the Right Way and, while you worry sometimes, (quite privately), that you might not be up to the task of setting an example to your friends and co-people, you laugh at the notion that you will fail to show others, by example or reference, how to properly live.

ok, time to get back to our respective predominant worldviews. (Thats the term we use to designate the ‘personality type’. We use it because the Wakefield Doctrine is predicated with how a person relates themelves to the world around them (worldviews) and not because of some set of geno-inspired likes, dislikes and tropae**.)

* not a ‘real’ word

** interestingly, when first encountering the concept of blogging, and the blogosphere itself, my response was, “Yeah, so everyone will read about what I had for breakfast or my thoughts on the weather.”

I had another song in mind, but the one today showed up instead. The thing he does with (the character, if nothing else) of individual notes is simply amazing. yeah, a clark.

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: personality types, relationships, self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine, Understanding Human Behavior

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

September 25, 2021 By clarkscottroger

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

This is the Ten Things of Thankful(TToT) bloghop.

Lets go with pitchas an music.

(No subtext for either!*)

1) Phyllis——————-⇓ (Una and Number 6)

2) Una

3) the Wakefield Doctrine

4) Six Sentence Story the place for flash fiction story-ettes new ones ever Thursday

5) excellent comment by Mimi to yesterday’s Post about ‘the Everything Rule’

6) TED Talks

7) internet, it’s own damnself, with all it’s faults and flaws (surely there were monks lead by St. Cuthbert marching in small, tight circles with signs carried by multiple monks (all that gold ink, ya know) protesting Gutenberg, ‘Moveable Type is the Devil’s… err technology!’

8) Serial Stories: ‘the Whitechapel Interlude‘ and ‘the Case of the Missing Fig Leaf‘

9) something, something

10) Secret Rule 1.3 (from the Book of Secret Rules aka the Secret Book of Rules)

* yeah, right. If, by ‘subtext’ we’re using the according to (the) Online Etymology Dictionary definition: Latin subtextere meant “to weave under, work in below.” then, no fricken way

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: relationships, self-development, self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

July 24, 2021 By clarkscottroger

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

This is the Ten Things of Thankful bloghop.

(I’m able to participate this week, so let’s go ahead and make this Number Four in our, soon-to-be-put-into-context, list.)

It was created by Lizzi, on a March afternoon, when the ground was rock-frozen and the sky burned blue all afternoon.

(Yes! You are correct! We are on the whimsy wagon this weekend. That, in no way, detracts from the sincerity and good intent of this week’s Grat List, adding as we are, the founding of the bloghop as Number Five)

We have a host, Dyanne. She has co-hostinae. Being one of them, if my sophomoric Latin doesn’t fail me, makes me a co-hostinius.

(My confidence in the face of an imagination that insists on tipping over the toy box before playing, surely rates inclusion as Number Six on this here list here.)

There is this internet. Surely it is both a never-depleted well and (a) bottomless pit for those who, through time or circumstance, character defect or divine inspiration, can not resist the next curiosity, the door at the end of the alley, the flash of white on a muttering rabbit…hello, goodbye.

(If none of the previous Grats cause a nod of approval, surely this, the one we will designate Number Nine, (for reasons, almost obvious in one of the music videos below) will resonate from anyone who owns a magic mirror and electrical keyboard.)

Number Seven, the immediate labelling an alert to a declining altitude in the current flight (sure, you could refer to it as Flight Twenty, Fancy Airlines), leads us to realize that all good things must come to an end..

Speaking of which, like the last peak of the too-high hill on a roller coaster, the Month of July will soon be abandoning us to the plummet to No-Longer-Summer.

(What a bummer! Surely an appropriate response. We do, however, invoke the Secret Rule of Hypogratuitous Items. And include it in this week’s TToT. Those who linger, resentment smouldering like a cigarette on picnic-trampled grass, would be advised to stop by Mimi’s blog. She is the master of the proper utilization of the hypograt and would otherwise be ranked way higher than Number Eight.)

Because we’ve been awarded a combination: Get out of Jail and Hall-pass cards, we’ll put our normal (yeah, as if) last item, Secret Rule 1.3 here at Numero Diez.

That leaves Two:

Una ————————————————————-↓