self-improvement | the Wakefield Doctrine - Part 39 self-improvement | the Wakefield Doctrine - Part 39

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘…post-Thanksgiving gratitude list?! sounds a little dangerous to me, if you know what I mean.’1

November 25, 2017 By

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

“Sitting at my desk at two minutes past five on a Friday afternoon, deep in the season of darkness.”
(Landscape orientation) The perspective of a person sitting at a desk, closely enough that the nearest edge of the muted-toffee top does not show. Most of the lower half of the photo is of the desktop. Except… it is not a full and even right-to-left claim on the bottom of the photo. The desk’s left edge is up against a wall that has a pair of windows. The wall on the left (with those two windows) takes up most of the left side of the photo but in the middle (of the scene) the left wall becomes the opposite wall.
The result is: while nearly all the elements in the photo are of square/rectangular shapes, not are straight, at least from the perspective we are afforded in the photo.

In the spirit of the delicious and lovingly prepared, multi-vehicle, interstate highway pile-up of a dinner this Thursday past, I’ll continue the theme in this week’s TToT.

Thanks go out to: Josie, Una, Phyllis, clients, the Graviteers, Joules (and her human, zoe), the fabulous Hexaliterati at the Six Sentence Story, the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules), Sister Bernadine of St. Dominique’s…oh and the the inventors of camera phones, Kerry (SOC-extrodinairette and road-trip role model), whoever invented yellow lined-pads, Cynthia and other like-minded clarks with the skills and discipline to ‘take the message’ out to the clarks who still live in the shadows. the movie ‘Tin Man‘ and the oddly encouraging personality quirk of un-justifiable ambition and delusions of literary skills beyond any reasonable assessment.2

There, that was a quick and simple TToT

A few feet notes, photo descriptions and a music vid and we’re done!

Hey! remember the ’70s?  (“You don’t?  No, no need to bother your parents…sure, I realize it’s just a quick call …no, I’m quite aware that Wikipedia is a keystroke away…. well, here watch the video and try to imagine a time/culture/milieu when the special effects contributed to the listener’s enjoyment of the song…no, seriously, It did.)

1)  It is axiomatic that if a person revisits the Wakefield Doctrine more than twice, (once by accident, once again to be certain that the author of the blog wrote what they thought he wrote), that person is: a clark or a scott or roger with a significant secondary clarklike aspect. ya know?

2) So let’s try and organize this mess ‘o grats. There are People, Places and Things that, by being present in my timeline, provide a positive influence on the path of its continuation.

The ‘People’ (in the above citation) are self-explanatory. (Yes, I will wait for the clarks to stop laughing.)

For the benefit of those new to this blog, I will list Una separately (from the people). Here is a photo:

Older Readers are permitted to laugh at the incidental (however greatly appreciated in retrospect) resemblance to a wonderful cartoon series from the 1960s, ‘Mr. Peabody and Sherman’ The term side-long glance is totally appropriate.
A landscape orientation.
Una on the left sitting upright on her haunches (forelegs straight, supported by front paws), in a bad-choice green leather wingback chair. She is looking directly at the camera, with mouth open, pink tongue anchoring the rounded ‘V’ of her face and head.
Phyllis is sitting to the right (Una’s left). She is not sitting upright. She does not appear to even be sitting in a chair. We guess this because the top of Phyllis’ head and Una’s head on a level.
Phyllis is not looking at the camera. She is looking at Una. She (Phyllis) has her left arm on the arm of the leather chair and, as a result, is leaning out of upright, towards Una.
The sidelong glance is apparent, despite the fact that Phyllis is wearing glasses. Her torso and head are facing the camera. Her eyes are looking at Una.
To seal the deal, Phyllis is wearing a turquoise tee shirt.
Una, on the other hand, conveys a sense of being properly and formally dressed for the occasion.

The ‘Places’ include the office in the photo at the top of the post. (“Yeah, the rogers are sitting with totally over-loaded thought balloons with, like, ‘there’s something wrong in that picture, hey that clock on the wall…wait just a damn minute!’) Direct your questions, concerns, outrage and complaints to zoe, thank you very much.

And finally, the Things: the Wakefield Doctrine. The reason for my presence in this virtual funhouse, everyone’s favorite ‘sphere, the blogosphere.

Here… that’s right…go ahead, click and read the other writers participating in the TToT

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impromptu post* -the Wakefield Doctrine- *…done without being planned, organized, or rehearsed.

October 17, 2017 By

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

Of course, our Dickensian subtitle begs the question, ‘can a reprint truly be un-planned or un-organised or (especially) un-rehearsed?‘ I mean, serially, is it not the essence of rehearsal to present something that, while at one point was spontaneous, by definition is a repeat? I know that the clarks (and those rogers and scotts with significant secondary clarklike aspects) are thinking, ‘isn’t the bulk of my day in fact a ‘reprint’? if I’m remembering how I usually respond to people and situations in the past and am taking that habitual path today… am I giving up my opportunity for the sake of certainty. damn! best try not to do that!’

From 2012

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

The Wakefield Doctrine is a unique insight into the behavior of the people in our lives (and outside of our lives). The Wakefield Doctrine is predicated on the fact that everyone lives  in what amounts to a ‘personal reality’ (aka a worldview).1 For the Reader willing to accept this premise, we offer three characteristic worldviews that account for:  you, me, the person who woke you up this morning, the Physician who will change your life in a single statement, the child you remember being on the perfect Halloween Evening, the woman who said she would love no other, the Teacher who you hated, the man who promised to return, the dreams of the future, the regrets of the past and your smile (to yourself) that you are still reading this thing.

The characteristic worldviews are (that of):

  1. the Outsider, you wake up each day knowing that the world is ‘out there’ and you are ‘here’, you are creative and funny and have an insatiable appetite to learn things, anything, for the joy of discovery and in the (secret) hope of learning the secret of how to be ‘a part of’ to not be the Outsider. This is the clark personality
  2. the Predator, you wake up each morning hungry…physically, spiritually, socially, sexually. A scott, (this is the personality type that naturally results from living in the worldview of the Predator), is always on the move, always alert, aggressive, fun to be with, mercurial, loud, un-shy and outlandish. It is said of the scottian individual, “I scream, therefore I am”
  3. the Member of the Herd, as a roger you are confident in the rightness of the world and constantly worried about sufficiently understanding the proper way to live, you are a social genius, you are a very encouraging listener and an inveterate gossip. You believe that Reality and the Universe is quantifiable and governed by Rules, your understanding of these Rules invests you with Power and Responsibility to everyone you encounter, rogers are responsible for Civilization and the Spanish Inquisition, the stability of  governance and the Salem Witch Trials

The theory (of the Wakefield Doctrine)  is that we are all born with the capability to live in one of these three worldviews and that at an early age (3-5), we all settle into what becomes our predominant worldview. Although this predominant worldview becomes our defining reality, we never lose the capacity to act as we would if we were in the ‘other two worldviews’. This is why many people, upon first trying out the Doctrine, write in and say, “Hey, I know my type, but there are times when I act like one of the other two! What the hell?” This is the example of what we call a secondary aspect, where a person ’employs’ a characteristic of the non-dominant worldviews to deal with a situation. It is usually a passing thing, nothing to be alarmed about.2
The Wakefield Doctrine is not only unique, it is easy to use! It does not ask questions, does not require the individual (you, the Reader, who else would we mean??!)  t0 complete a survey or describe their likes, dislikes and favorite colors.  There is no math to be performed, no charts or graphs (“…your personality type is somewhere on this scale that runs from 0 = Savior of Mankind to 10 = Geez, what a jerk!”)
The Wakefield Doctrine simply maintains that your personality is the natural result of your growing up, developing and living in one of the three worldviews.
The Wakefield Doctrine is not only unique and easy, it is fun! If you learn the characteristics of the three personality types, go out into your day today, you will see at least one clark and one scott (and by inference a bunch of rogers), and they will act just like we describe in these Pages. So go out, try it and come back and say “Hey Make it stop now!! Sure this is a valid insight, but my husband!!  he is such a roger! I can’t stop giggling when he tries to tell me how great a hobby that (genealogy, re-enacting, bicycling is). Make it stop!”

Thats it for today.

Thanks for behaving! We have a group of new people here today (yes, those odd locations in the feedjit, the whispering in the back of the classroom) not to worry! Most will leave as soon as the Tour bus gets here. Sure, why not? “Now,everone say hello to all them folks what came by from Bloppy Bloggers!

 

1)  nothing weird, really! We are not saying that reality is what you want it to be ( well, we actually do say that) and we are not proposing that the world at large is less real and concrete than your personal world,  (err..better hold that thought too) and we are so not saying that this is a personality theory that requires the user to have  a certain, special quality that combines intellectual confidence and a desire to imagine what if? (damn! 3 for 3…back up to the Post now, enough about you, this is about how the Wakefield Doctrine will make your today much more interesting).

2)  actually this business of secondary aspects holds the key to the Wakefield Doctrine being used as the best of self-improvement, self-development tools! But that’s for later, this is an introduction to the Doctrine, yo.

 

 

* here’s the vid that took me back (almost) to the reprint post above.

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TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

October 15, 2017 By

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

‘Whats a birthday celebration without photos thought lost in the past?’
Una at some age less than six months. The woman holding her for the photo is wearing the traditional national dress of the Czech Republic, i.e. red, down-filled quilted jacket. She is smiling in the background. Una is resting her chest and forelegs on the woman’s left hand, her paws showing light beige (Una’s, not the woman’s) in color, Una’s expression is one of less than total enjoyment.

 

Isn’t it funny how words and expressions can change meaning with time? I’m currently trying to write this on my phone and, for whatever reason, the expression popped into mind, ‘ (he is) all thumbs’. I kinda know why that thought occurred to me, as my texting skills are totally what we used to refer to as ‘hunt an peck’. In any event, I remembered that proper texting technique involves the use of both thumbs, hence the thought of ‘all thumbs’. The continuation of the thought that meanings change was inevitable. (then: ‘Why, the poor dear tries so hard but is all thumbs’; now: ‘yow, look at her text, girls all thumbs’). I trust that’s what the ‘young’ people might say. For some reason I’m not always included in their peer conversations.

Where was I? I know! I know! This is the TToT.

This is a bloghop. People write posts, (on their respective blog), and link them to the post the Josie sets up each and every week. This allows ‘one-stop’ reading and given the theme, gratitude (its appreciation, recognition and sharing) it makes for very enlightening reading.

Thanks as always to Josie Two Shoes for her dedication and hard work in making this ‘hop experience both simple and seamless.

‘Colorful stripes and curious dogs’
Phyllis giving Una her birthday presents. They are in a gift bag, (as opposed to individually wrapped, as Una had already eaten breakfast).
The bag in on the left edge of the center of the photo. It shows as a rectangle (on end) held at the top by two very red strings for a handle. The bag has horizontal stripes from top top bottom and looks like an astronomers spectrum analysis (provide the astronomer was 5 years old and just discovered Crayola Centuri).
Una is on her couch. And leaning forward to check out the bag with her primary senses, i.e. her nose is a quarter in from the bag (to explore the contents), her ears are up (in case it’s alive) and her eyes are totally on Phyllis. A happy and alert dog on her birthday.

“A young dog opening presents.’
Deciding which of the toys to pull our of the bag first.

‘Autumns birthday cake’
A photo of the side yard. The lower half (landscape perspective) is of the lawn, which for reasons related to shade, runs from a splotchy dark green on the left, fading to a worn-carpet beige as it leaves our view on the right.
The top half of the photo is of the pine woods. The nearest pine trees are showing with their branches shooting upwards at an angle to the trunk, like a stop-action fireworks display with green gun powder. There is a gap in the trees in the center that leads to Phyllis’ tree house.
The center of the photo is the birthday cake. There is circle of ferns about twenty feet across. The edges show darker than the center and add to the sense of a disc. The color ranges from green to a diluted mustard-yellow with some brown-trying-real-hard-to-look-red. The edge nearest has shadows and make you think of the upwards-curling-over of frosting around the top edge of a cake.

2) Una’s birthday today, she’s 7 (or maybe 49 or …56.) Nah, she’s seven years old because that’s how long she’s been a part of the family. The time from being born to showing up with her driver* I believe is about 6 months.

3) * ‘what’s this about having a driver?’  Glad you asked!

4) * This would be Una (actually, in this photo, she would be more properly address as ‘Balla’, her Czech name), more than likely at the airport in Frankfort Germany. She flew from the Czech Republic to Boston, (via Frankfort), She was driven to our house from Boston.

5) and since we’re on the subject of hypo-grata**..   abusive games that a certain element of society inflicts on the young and the clarks…. musical chairs!  totally awful game meant to amuse scotts, re-assure rogers and remind clarks that they’re Outsiders (like they need the reminder).

6) Hey, ho! New project in the woods and it involves…. moving earth from one place to another! Very excited about the coming week (or two, depending on weather). We’re constructing a new path in the woods that will allow Una and Phyllis to walk down to the pond from a different direction. My part is to create an earthen ramp to compensate for a point in the path where the land rises too quickly. More to follow.

7) ‘Home and Heart‘ I continue to write the story at a markedly variable rate of production. It is very much a learning experience.

8) the Gravity Challenge… the crew, Val and May and Joy and Kristi all be sending in photographic evidence of how big a crush the center of the earth has on each of us. Every single morning except for Sunday. Come on by. It’s fun and beneficial, if altering the number on your scale is an item of interest.

9) ‘This Space Available’ ***

10) Secret Rule 1.3

 

*** How cool is the attitude towards lists of Ten Items that Josie encourages? (Well, since you asked), if you’re out there and reading this, maybe a friend mentioned a bloghop where people write about their week and their lifes and offer some really positive insights and you’re thinking, ‘Sounds like fun and I’d love to participate but I only have one thing I can think of at the moment.’  Well, problem solved! Send in your Item of Thankful (by comment would be easiest) and I’ll set it right there at Number 9!)

‘This way to entrance! Step right up, don’t be shy! Fun and adventure await on the other side of this little virtual curtain.’

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UAn7WOqtOs

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TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine- (un-numbered, photo-centric and all over the place… but, still Ten Things)

October 8, 2017 By

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

Better look to the bottom of the post for this image to make any sense, at all.

1897 Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

 

  • Josie
  •   TToT
  •   photos
  • (Fred)
  • oh yeah, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

‘A playground of giant Lindy pens, blue plastic bottle caps and bubblegum-pink slide’
A pastel schoolyard. Swings and rings, climbing castles and a table and benches under a dark blue canopy.
The sand is the color of a beach that’s just a little too far from the water. The wall of trees and bushes look like a green castle wall.

 

‘A ancient barge stranded on land’.
Perhaps following a storm, or maybe due to the captain’s inattention, the sea has retreated, a once far-roaming ship rests, land-bound on a tired foundation.
It now tries to find purpose and value as a building.’

‘A view of a horizon so distant it bends under its length, sinking down to the far side of the world’

 

‘A glass shield guards the entrance to a church. The altar at the far end is lit from behind, the internal space, with curved-ribs showing above, looks like a boat turned upside down. When the faithful gather, this vast hull, fashioned to carry them above the depthless water, now prevents direct access to heaven.’

Weddings and Receptions and the Doctrine, oh my.

Next to airport terminal, there surely is no more  enjoyable a place to observe people, (through our favorite perspective, the Wakefield Doctrine), than a wedding reception. Phyllis and I were at Table 10 which was on the outer edges of the main concentration of tables in the banquet hall. It was perfect. We could see the whole room from where we sat, without having to turn in our chairs.

 

Speaking of weddings and churches and such. While not inclined towards organized religions, my people* are adept at appreciating both ceremony and demonstrations of faith. So I’ll take advantage of the apparent theme of this week’s post to provide a lead-in for my favorite gospel singer, Fred Hammond.

*  you know, clarks**

** lol no, you’re correct.That footnote was not intended for clarks… rather for scotts and rogers.  Were there any scotts at our table? I’ll say. Actually it was rather interesting. We had one scott at the beginning. He talked and charmed and entertained and had a good time, (how could he do otherwise, as scotts are self-narrating). Then, lo and behold, the couple that came to complete our table? A scott and a clark. (male scott, female clark). The two scotts conferred and dealt (privately) with the matter of hunting rights and worked it out in typical scottian fashion, i.e. they took turns. (no! really! read your Doctrine!) They both roamed the room, the majority of their time spent apart. The dominant scott got to spend the greater time at our table. The clark that accompanied the scott was delightful. She was an example of why sometimes, including yesterday, I will turn to a close confidant, Phyllis, in this case, and ask, in total sincerity: “You’d tell me, if this Wakefield Doctrine, clarks, scotts and rogers thing was simply a projected figment of my imagination, wouldn’t you? Do you see the way she’s pressing her lips, rather than smiling, putting her hand in front of her face too often, laughing but turning away…. that’s not just me, right?”

10) Secret Rule 1.3 which states, in part, ‘the completion of items (be they photos or videos, music or poetry) that feels like at least Ten Items and are totally things you are grateful for, can, in and of itself, be counted as an Item. Tradition holds that this item be the final, deca-ulitmate1 Item in a given list. And… also if Una is mentioned.2

 

 

Come on! Join us… a bunch ‘a people we haven’t seen in a while are there!

1) not a ‘real’ word

2) or whatever life form of your preference

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ἡμέρα Ἄρεως -the Wakefield Doctrine- (‘the day of the week most favored by clarks’)

August 1, 2017 By

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

So why is it that, of the three personality types, clarks look upon Tuesday as, perhaps, the best of all days of the week? Simple. The weekend-workweek transition day (Monday) has been survived, the focus on achieved (or not) progress day (Wednesday) has not yet occurred and the deceptively desirable end-of-workweek day (Friday) is still a distant dream.

Tuesday is all about optimism and promise. And clarks, well, clarks are nothing if not the embodiment of promise.* No, in our brief discussion this morning, ‘promise’ is decidedly a noun. And the context is social context-free! It is not about breaking a promise, making a promise, promising to better. It (the promise of a clark) is the potential… for (totally fill in the blank).

If anything, the promise inherent in the worldview of a clark is the event horizon of their existence. whoah! (whoah, indeed!) Damn, as often happens, I’ve stumbled into a topic that, like a quiet talk and a cup of coffee at the kitchen counter, the coming day still held back by the castellation in bleached oak of the cabinets bracketing the sink, the outside wall falls into the yard and the world yaws open, ever hungry for human time.

lol

Cliff Notes version of my tantalizing allusion: “…the promise inherent in the worldview of a clark is the event horizon of their existence.” clarks are always searching for something. Being of a rational bent (clarks think, scotts act and rogers feel), the sought-after thing manifests as knowledge/information. clarks are the insatiably curious of the three. The ‘something’ clarks seek is the thing that everyone around them appear to know already and, by tragic miscalculation, clarks assume is the knowledge that makes them, (scotts and rogers) real people. They must have been absent that day, when growing up and being taught about life, ya know. In any event, that is the singularity, the conviction that if they acquire more information, they might discover the secret and become a part of.** Like the nearly-all powerful black hole, we cannot see it directly and so are left with the edge of endless appetite, like golem with a question mark impressed upon our foreheads.

 

 

*  the natural tendency here is to interpret the word ‘promise’ as a verb, which totally changes the spin. That kind of promise is strictly of the domain of the real people, the scotts and the rogers. (“Hey, a promise is a promise, so get some clothes on an we’ll catch some breakfast”  “Yeah, but you promised. I heard you promise. Everyone heard you promise. How can you do such a thing?“)

 

** super-brief Doctrine for New Readers: unlike most of the other personality theories and schema, the Doctrine does not rely on quizzes and surveys, questions about favorite colours or food, likes and dislikes, in order to establish which category a person falls into. This is because, from our viewpoint, our personality ‘types’ are simply the characteristically distinct style of dealing with life, given the world we are experiencing. Ex: I grew up in the reality of the ‘the Outsider’ and I learned and developed the style of interacting that would best advantage me in that context. My tendency to mumble, have poor posture, make creatively eccentric fashion choices, be funny (provided you’re close enough to hear me) and exhibit a sporadic yet wildly original creativity is because that is what is successful when contending with the world as I experience it. For scotts and for rogers, the same applies. Start out as a little baby one in the world of the Predator and I betcha you develop a predilection for quick reflexes, act-before-being-acted-up real fast. It’s about what strategies are appropriate to the character of the world you grow up in, you know, what kind of likes and dislikes, favorite colours or food that increase the odds that you survive and thrive today.

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