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Finish the Sentence Fr…. -the Wakefield Doctrine- (surely I’ve used that obvious joke before, but it’s a ‘Bridge of Sighs’ kind of Friday, so forgive me if so’)

October 2, 2015 By

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

Venice(Bridge_of_Sighs)

Today we rejoin (or would that be trejoin) our old (as in the length of our relationship, not the age of the hostinae) friends (not that there’s anything wrong with being old), at the Finish the Sentence Friday bloghop (well, I’m not prepared to say that being old is as good as being young, it’s more the implications of the word ‘old’ that might give me pause), as they (being the pretty-amazing-even-for-an-imaginary-woman-in-a-virtual-world) Kristi and Roshni and Ivy Walker, (though, in the interest of Full Disclosure, I do know this Ivy person, except by a different name, zoe which, I suspect tells you everything there is to know about this rather prolific and clever writing ‘person’)… Roshni, I know from seeing her out in the internet and, every week she can be found at that other bloghop, the TToT, (pretty good blog, if I say so myself). This Week’s incomplete Sentence:

 

“I can’t believe it took me so long to realize that…”

…that everything written and posted and, otherwise found on the internet (in general) and in the blogosphere (in particular) is so autobiographical. Not that that’s a bad thing. But the realization, like so often happens when we have a chance moment of insight into the nature of reality (or, for those of us of more modest ambition) our selves, can cause us to totally run away. It’s not that people don’t want to learn about themselves, everyone does. And… and! it’s not even that people tend to not want to know about the parts of themselves that is not what they would want to see, we all have mirrors in our house and, despite our complexions or weight or hair style, we keep them there (yeah, the mirrors too). No, it’s neither of those insights that we recoil from. The self-knowledge, the insight into ourselfs that is most likely cause us to recoil in denial is ‘how we relate ourselves to the world around us’. Note that I did not say ‘how we relate to the world around us’, I said ‘how we relate ourselves to the world around us’ there’s a difference. And the really cool (or awful or horrifying or ‘this-is-the-worst-adolescent-fantophilosophysing’) thing is that the key to all lasting change, at least in the sense of self-improvement is to be found only in the appreciation, understanding, acceptance (and, possibly, the Will to change) this relationship. Hell, we’re all aware of our bad points or our good qualities or the things that we should stop doing or the bad habits that we know we’ll change someday. What is so central to what we are, and therefore at the heart of what must be dealt with is,  ‘what we are in relation to the people, places and things that make up that world out there’.

the part about autobiographical everything?  even what I write that is meant to disguise me is identifying me. And, even that’s not a bad thing. It’s who I am.

ya know.

*hey I really enjoyed this. It is such a ‘Bridge of Sighs’ looking day, that I’ll put the link (rather than post the link to the video that I used a few years ago).

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Six Thousand Word Story -the Wakefield Doctrine- (…well, no, not exactly 6 thousand, it just feels like that on Wednesday)

October 1, 2015 By

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

Milla-Jovovich-in-Resident-Evil-Extinction-actresses-1800415-1024-427

The time of the week when we are challenged to write a story of no more than 6 Sentences. The only ‘Rule’ is that it, (the story, not the Rule), use, employ, infer, imply or otherwise, (in whatever manner the author might deem likely to cause the) Reader to encounter a certain word. In the case of this week’s Six Sentence Story, our host, zoe/ivy would ask that we invoke the word, ‘convert’

‘To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.’ (Thomas Aquinas)
*******************

“I really don’t believe you are taking this matter quite as seriously as you should.” sitting in the single chair positioned directly before the desk of the Mother Superior, Sister Margaret Ryan is trying to forget what she thinks she now knows about herself.

The room is a symphony of wood and stain, carved relief figures, (scenes of forests and huntsmen, the ‘Action Figures’ of a long ago and very different time), and towering shelves holding priceless First Editions and dead animals,  a bygone era reflected in polished oak and walnut, the decidedly masculine tone somewhat offset by the intricate patterns of the oriental carpet. The former owner, a devout Banker who, undoubtedly, decided that leaving his mansion to the Church would be a sound investment,  the building, now converted to a Convent, made the nuns living there the envy of their Order and, this room was the Inner Sanctum for the person holding power over, …nothing as mundane as Life and Death, rather the woman who reigned within held sway on a person’s Life After Death, and though not physically elevated, the expanse of desk between the two women was no less a Judge’s bench, lacking only a Bailiff and Stenographer.

“Are you Listening, Sister Ryan?”

She was not listening, she was staring out the window that framed the imposing figure of Sister Affrontina, the Autumn colors of the trees outside made the (mostly) black garbed (with a splash of white surrounding her face), woman seem especially predatory, an albino tiger nearly perfectly still in the underbrush, waiting for the prey to make a fatal error.

Sister Margaret Ryan was thinking about a girl in 6th Grade at Our Lady of Penance,

“If you don’t apply yourself and use the gifts you were born with, it will be like putting a gun to God’s head and pulling the trigger,”

the memory-echos of well-intentioned, yet wholly twisted and disfigured efforts to motivate a talented young girl, maintained it’s power, the remarkable violence contained in the words, like a greenstick fracture mistaken for a minor injury, returning years later with consequences far in excess of the original trauma,

‘Who says that kind of thing to a child?! Margaret said out loud… looking at dedicated and devoted woman and feeling only like prey, “these are children, they’re not prey…“

 

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‘re=print Toosday’ -the Wakefield Doctrine- ” …’cause sometimes you gots to relax and…well, try to relax, ya know?”

September 29, 2015 By

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

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The funny thing about (writing) a blog is that the more you write, the easier it is to write and the more you write, the more dissatisfied you are with what you (would) write.

Thank god for archived Posts!

no! you’re right! I don’t have to write a Post today. But the thing about the Wakefield Doctrine, (in general), and this blog, (in particular), is that half the fun is in reading what I’ve written. It’s no secret that the Posts in late 2013 and (most of) 2014, were vastly more entertaining that the current year’s content. Now, to be fair, I realize that the content over the years has changed (and developed) and the early years were really fun because the topics were so simple: “what is this Doctrine thing?”,   “What the hell are you talking about, three personality types!!!” and  “...for the last time, I’m telling you, I’m all three, but especially whichever one you say that I’m not.”

ok! I’m feeling much, much better now.  lol, no! seriously! this blog thing is so amazing. Here I am this morning, feeling like I’ve lost the whole ‘start typing and it will write itself’ mojo and so I concede with a reprint (knowing that there’s a good chance that my intro to the reprint will turn into something) but then… then!! on that last line?  The one  ‘..to be fair..’?  It took me a second to reread it and it hit me that I wrote the characteristic response appropriate to the three worldviews (clarks and scotts and rogers), without the slightest conscious intent.

cool.

(but I’m out of time, so here’s the reprint from October 27, 2014)

 

‘the most important’ Principle of our favorite personality theory? That one is easy! The most important Principle of the Wakefield Doctrine is: we all live our lives in one of three personal reality(s). We have the potential for it (our reality) to be one of three, at an early age it happens that we find ourselves in:

    • the reality of the Outsider (clarks)…another, very useful way to say this is, we relate ourselves to the world around us as ‘the Outsider’
    • the life of the Predator (scotts)… they would say, ‘life is happening now, there are threats and there are opportunities, life is neither bad nor good, it simply is…lighten up and do something!’
    • the world of the Herd Member (rogers) the world has Rules, there are 2,398 ways to do a thing and only one of those is the Right Way, a good life is the result of giving your all to find that way and be the example of why it’s the right way

Simple enough, right? Oh, one more (yeah, a very important Principle): these worldviews? real. seriously. real as in there are threats and prey and traps to be sniffed out, if you’re living as a scott ok?  the world is a quantifiable place? why do you think rogers make the best engineers and Chefs? The reason I emphasize this, is that, this is the Most Important Difference between the Doctrine and those other personality systems.
That is: I don’t find myself having to: ‘speak clearly, for crying out loud’ or ‘don’t slouch!’ or ‘use apostrophes’ or ‘great insight, now back it up with some empirical evidence, already!’ because I’m trying to be difficult, (well, maybe a little). I’m doing it because those are coping strategies that works best for a person who is trying to get by in the reality of ‘the Outsider’.
Bottom line? the ‘personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine are not categories, and they are not matrixeseses… does factoring in…..er factors, place me in a certain group according to my preferences and traits and peccadilloes? No. That’s not what we do here at the Wakefield Doctrine.
The reason I refer to myself as a clark* is that it accurately and consistently reflects ‘how I relate myself to the world around me’.
And scotts are not just Tasmanian devils, (barely able to restrain their enthusiasm), teaching pre-K children with a fiercely protective love and, given half a chance, inclined to throw the class in a mini-van for a road trip to the stockyards, rather than bore them to sleep with rote lessons. No! they are people who have developed the necessary skills and strategies to succeed in the world of Predator and prey.
And rogers know that how they do whatever they do, counts. The fastidiousness that they bring to everything they do, (from cooking a meal to learning to use a compound bow) is simply what the world demands.
To apply the Wakefield Doctrine does not involve: answer(ing) the following questions. (there is no) rate yourself. All that you need to do is ask: ‘how do you relate yourself to the world around you?’

.

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-the Wakefield Doctrine- FTSF (yeah, I know! how long has it been?)

September 25, 2015 By

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

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The Sentence that I have been invited to Finish is:

“If I could have any superpower, I would want to be able to…”

super (adv) prefix:   “…and, more figuratively, “an individual, thing, or property that exceeds customary norms or levels”

power[s] (noun):  “…ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something.)  (both courtesy dictionary.com)

So, given the above, I guess the superpower I would want to have is …the capability of living and acting in the here and now.

Yeah, I know!! Not very sexy. Can you imagine the comic strip or graphic novel or movie franchise based on this Superpower?

Clark ‘The Here and Now Man’!!  “Watch in disbelief as he focuses on you without trying to qualify what he says in fear of offending! Be amazed as he approaches new people and novel situations without the fear and baggage from his memories of times just-like-this-one-except-with-different-people-and-different-circumstances!!! You’ll gasp in astonishment as he acts spontaneously and yet, even when everyone thinks he’s being really silly, he’s unafraid!! It’s as if he is not concerned with what people think of him!!! Come and follow the strange Tale of Living in the Moment…   as you leave the theater you’ll find yourself saying ‘it’s only a movie but it would be so good to live that way’!

…hey, I would totally give a shoutout t0 Kristi for this here bloghop here, it was my very first and remains one of my favorite ‘hops!  And to her co-hostinae Amy and Michelle.

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Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘Some good-for-you, possibly-good-for-the-other-person things you can do with this here Doctrine here

September 21, 2015 By

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

CSR copy

Only requirement to benefit from the application of the Wakefield Doctrine: be willing and able to allow that, Reality is, to a small but totally certain extent, personal.

So what are the things that you can use the Wakefield Doctrine for, in the course of your day today?

  • (better) Understand the people in your life.
  • ( better) Understand yourself
  • (have a lot better chance of success to) Change the things about yourself that you’ve wanted to change, but have never managed to quite achieve.
  • (pretty much, totally) Prevent other people from changing things about yourself that they want to change, but you suspect is not in your best interest.
  • (in the way of your people) Have fun.
  • (promise not to tell them, at least until you get more grounded in this here personality theory, but you will so) Know more about the people you encounter in the course of the day than you have any business knowing, maybe even, more than they know about themselves.  cool, eh?

oh, yeah… there is, of course, a certain degree of reading and learning and, most of all, practice required to be a position to realize the above benefits. I will, however, guarantee them, (the benefits stated in easy-to-read-point-points* above). Remember that all the descriptions and examples of the three worldviews are simply clues and imagery to aid you in answering the essential Question the Wakefield Doctrine would have us ask:

‘how does that person relate themselves to the world around them’

…as does a(n):

  1. Outsider (clark) i.e. (for you), the world and all the people are ‘out there’,  you know that only knowing will allow you to know that you are known to those you know as being a ‘real person’  (that being said, if you’re a clark, you’re totally fricken creative (not just reassemble the same old parts into a new-looking thing, but (the) bring into the world something that has never existed kind of creative), and you’re a great listener (clinically and certifiably tolerant… to the point of self-destructively so) and you’re funny (but only when you think (or don’t care if) anyone is listening) and you thinking in parentheseses
  2. Predator (scott) alive and not given to introspection, at least not the type of introspection that your clarklike friend does (and you do have a clarklike friend, because… well because you can’t figure them out!! most of the time they, (your clarklike friend), acts like prey (you know, rogers) and that’s ok, if not a little, well, boring, but every now and then, maybe during one of those times that you play a little too rough (hey, you got to have your fun too, we know! we know!) anyway, every now and then they rear up and knock you … ass-over-teacup** and you’re like,  ‘Alright!!  lol”  ...that friend. In the meantime, you live your life and it unfolds… ’cause, even though you can’t be bothered wasting time thinking about it, you know that today is everything….
  3. Herd Member (roger) today is not just the only day (as it is for scotts), nor is it the day before the real day, (as it is for clarks), today, well today is perfect. Your only concern is to be able to live up to it. There are a million ways your day can go today and some are good and some not so good, but there is only one correct way. You know that the world and reality, (the things you know, the places you’ve been, well, everything but the people that you encounter), are knowable and quantifiable, given the effort on your part. It’s not that success is the only thing that matters today, what is important to you is that you not ‘fail improperly’ today.

that’s enough for today. come back tomorrow, or better yet, ask us questions in the comments.

 

*Friend of the Doctrine, Christine informs us that the term ‘bullet points’ is frowned upon in today’s phobic-philic culture

**What an archaically amusing expression!

 

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