relationships | the Wakefield Doctrine

1,2,3,4,5,6… stop! -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘we have reached the limit of sentences allowed!’

September 29, 2016 By clarkscottroger

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

(Wednesday evening) So, I’ve got my Colman Hawkins record on the hifi’s spindle, the kitchen is all neat and tidy, scarves for throwing over the lampshades discreetly on the end tables… ok, stage is set! I’ll back later in the morning, to see what this week’s Six Sentence blind date is going to be….

zoe invites you, (the readers and other participants), to join in on her bloghhop, the Six Sentence Story. Effortless as circular desert! Six sentences, no more and no less.

rank…..rank…..rank…..rank…..rank…..rank

Artillery bombardment tore the night into long strips of screaming terror that floated down over the men, suffocating them at random intervals as they huddled in the trenches. Like ceremonial scars, rows that ran over the hills and through the valleys of the French countryside, just north of Marne, were dug by men with the furor of self-preservation and now, once dug, inhabited by young men made ancient by over-exposure to the cold wet fact of their own mortality.

“Whadda we gonna do, Lieutenant,” Sargeant Lou Donoto stared at his newly commissioned commanding officer and prayed to St. Michael to be allowed to leave the trench under his own power.

Lt. Cyril Sauvage crouched, his back pressed against the forward wall of the command dugout, feet mired in the muck that passed for solid ground in the bloody furrow and stared at the Sergeant, trying desperately to remember something from his 90 days of officer training that might stall the erosion of confidence,

“Our orders are to take the hill and, according to my instructors in OCS, the best way to do that is to organize my men into ranks and files so that if we meet resistance then the men in the files will protect our backs as we move forward,” Cyril Sauvage spoke with the heartfelt assurance reserved for the very young and the terminally ill.

“We are the rank, Lt Sauvage, there ain’t no file, there’s only the men to the right and the men to the left,” Louie Donoto looked back down the slope of the hill and saw only broken trees, craters full of liquid and un-moving parts of damaged men, “we might as well go forward, there just ain’t no going back, sir.”

Cyril Sauvage drew in a breath that was deep enough to last the rest of his life, stood up in the trench and yelled, “For God and country!”

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

Six -the Wakefield Doctrine-

September 15, 2016 By clarkscottroger

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

Yeah, one of those Six Sentence Stories. In my (partial) defence I will say, this writing thing has become all about practicing. But then again, zoe, the curatoress of this collegial collection of curious and captivating life commentaries and observances (whew! ‘Mr Thesauras don’t fail me now!’) never said we couldn’t use this weekly Six Sentence Story to practice the craft. With the skills and imaginations of the participants here, one cannot help but become a better writer.

BArk

Like a slow-motion film of an avalanche on a snowy mountain side played in reverse, the approaching car begins to slow as it nears the exit, the number of cars entering the shopping center is nearly perfectly balanced with those leaving it. It is not perfectly balanced because cars are leaving more rapidly than they should, given the traffic conditions. It’s early afternoon, the sun is mercilessly bright and over-bearing, if for no other reason than in September it has no competition from summer-afternoon shower clouds and is every bit the schoolyard bully when the teacher, suddenly called back into the colored-constuction-paper prison of brick and linoleum, leaves her young charges un-guarded.
He sees himself in the shinyhard-glass windows, safely slid up, reflected in the averted eyes of the drivers and feels a memory stir, the figure etched in coated glass familiar, but barely recognizable.

The window is down on one approaching car and from the back seat a dog barks a warning, head and forward-leaning ears projecting from the opening of the still moving vehicle.

As the car draws abreast, the driver looks away, the dog stares curiously, tongue now lolling and relaxed and does not bark, the man stares back and sees the acknowledgment of his presence in the simplest of terms, one life to another, the dog does not judge and the man feels the echo of a memory stir, the car moves out into traffic, the dog maintaining eye contact until the car turns away and the man turns back to face his shrunken world.

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

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine-

September 8, 2016 By clarkscottroger

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

well, getting a way early start this week! In my defense, I think it’s Tuesday.

The word that zoe has given us is ‘range’. And, this being the Six Sentence Story, our (collective) jobs are to write a story incorporating, referencing or have something to do with ‘range’. Pretty simple, isn’t it? No, not so simple at all!

But fun in a ‘hey, that kinda worked!’ way.

Range

“I don’t understand why you have to do this, Sterling; maybe your college buddy Cyril Sauvage has something to prove, with his parents coming over from France and all, but you have a family… well, you have me,” Almira’s hand drifted over her mid-section as she stood washing the same dinner plate over and over, through the window at the sink, she watched the darkening of night steal the life from the day.

“It’s not just him, Almira, the whole world is at risk and if Germany defeats France then England is next and then where would our family be,” Sterling Gulch sat the kitchen table, back towards his wife, staring into the adjacent living room, its wide picture window that looked out over Narragansett Bay was slowly turning into a mirror, as night surrounded the house and the only illumination came from the kitchen as he and his wife fought the not-yet-felt ravages of war.

“You’re so close to having your degree, I’ll be teaching in a year, isn’t that enough?”

“It’s more than enough, it’s everything I could hope for but, I need to do this…” he fell silent as the words that connected him to his wife were stalked and eaten by the wolf of aggression and politics, friendship and fear of not-measuring-up, claiming it’s ransom.

Almira Gulch looked at the window before her, the light of the kitchen created fairytale-like reflections of herself and her husband sitting at the table in the center of the room when a subtle motion drew her eye to the living room picture window in which two people showed, seemingly withdrawing from one and other, farther and farther apart, beyond any true dimensions of the physical space.

A shudder ran through the young woman, a distant calling from somewhere within her fought to be turned into sound, “…Private Gulch, the very first thing you do is determine the range of the enemies weapons and try and stay outside of it, until, that is, your commanding officer tells you to crawl over the barbwire into the next trench, do I make myself clear?“

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

Tuesday that feels like Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine- as practical a personality theory as you might ask for!

September 6, 2016 By clarkscottroger

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

(why, yes! you do see a clark and a scott and a roger)

As promised. a Doctrine post that does not consist of six (and only six) sentences and is not particularly gratified.

Quick Pop Quiz (Who Said it Category):

“I really get tired of listening to that guy talk about himself, he’s so self-absorbent”

clark or scott or roger?

So what does this have to do with self-improvement?

Hey! Chapter 23 of ‘Almira‘ is on the streets! Smart money says this story is gonna go extra innings. (Everything I read about getting a book published is all, “maximum 90k words unless you spell your name with a ROWLING or a KING in it.) Thing of it is, I’m liking the characters and the story they’re telling. What am I supposed to say, ‘Hey! hurry the hell up! Tell us how this all comes out!…. well, no, not you Eliza… everyone enjoys your scenes… shit, don’t let Almira hear you, she mess you up!’

So I will continue as I have, writing one chapter each and every week until the story of Almira is told. There are worse ways to spend one’s non-working hours. And, of course, I get to be the first to learn things about our friends, for instance: You all knew that Almira and Sterling just happened to pass through Eminence, Missouri on a fateful day in March, 1925, right? (When I say ‘passed through’ I mean, ‘chased out of town by angry pentecostalists, right into the path of the deadliest tornado in history’) and, you ….

Wait! I’m supposed to be writing about the Wakefield Doctrine and how it can be of benefit to you in the course of your day today! Sorry. This is, in fact, the reason for my resolution to write more frequently here, take a breather from the world of 1912 and 1939.

So, here’s some very practical advice: if your boss is a roger, never ask him/her a question in public* that the answer is anything other than proof that he/she is the best of all managers. If you want or need something for real, ask in private. And when you’re doing that, don’t ask the question straight out of the box, always preface it with a, ‘Excuse me/hey, have you got a minute for a quick question?’

Where are my damn manners?!?! Here I am starting out the week with a Doctrine post without a simple statement of the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers! Pardon me, New Readers. I beg your forgiveness, I’ve been off the regular Doctrine Lecture circuit far, far too long.

The Wakefield Doctrine is a perspective on the world and how we relate ourselves to it. The Doctrine maintains that we, all of us, have the potential to live in one of three characteristic (personal) realities and, at an early age we settle into one (while retaining the potential of ‘the other two’) and grow up and develop and live. The personality types of the Doctrine reflect the strategies and coping mechanisms we develop to deal with the nature of the world that we grow up in. In other words, the behavior and characteristic views on life that identify me as a clark are, collectively, my best effort to live in the world as I found it when I was but a child.

The three worldviews:

clarks (the Outsiders) they are odd but kind, fearful and courageous, giving and needy. clarks try to hide but hate to be ignored, you have at least one as a friend (unless you’re a clark yourself, in which case, you know several, but never hang out just with them)
scotts (the Predators) holy smokes! you totally have a scottian friend (unless you are one, in which case, you have several, but, for the most part, they’re like the ensigns-without-a-name who are included in the away team in the beginning of the last Star Trek episode you saw (they ain’t beaming back up)…. scotts are the life of the party and cause you to say on more than one occasion, ‘…but, she’s/he’s my friend since I can remember! Sure he/she goes a little overboard at times, but, look! we got through it without the (police, ambulance, parish priest, CPR, grace-of-god)!!’ scotts are generous to a fault, brave without sense and do they ever look great in heels
rogers (the Herd Members) the majority of the population, they are the reasons that the planes don’t fall from the sky, (as opposed to being flown into things or never leaving the runway). rogers are creative in the sense of clever use (and) re-assembly of components, wicked good musicians and are the sole reason that we’re not all still living on the savannah hunting in small packs and/or hiding in the underbrush. rogers are kind but at a price, bold (in a group) and the glue of social continuity (a quality at first so prosaic as to be disregarded, until you’re at a high school party at someone whose parents are away for the weekend and the liquor cabinet is discovered un-locked.)

Ok, that should get you started.

Questions?

* ‘public’ being defined as anyplace that there’s more than two people, or in a location one might imagine that you’re being overheard or, hell, overseen (as in standing outside in a courtyard where no one could possibly hear you, but can see the two of you talking…. that’s being in public to a roger

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: personality types, psychology of personality, relationships, self-improvement, 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!