the Wakefield Doctrine

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

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

(oh man! the photo above? I have no idea what made me think that it was the best representation of this particular TToT post!  lol and, in the interest of full disclosure, I picked the photo after I completed the post! ayieee!  but, come on, admit it… you’ve had that happen, right? You say something or write something and even as the keys are clicking back into their ‘un-expressed-letter-positions’, you totally flash on a time or event or memory from way ago and that energy (crystalized in the sap of the memory) resonates with the image (or photo or painting or song, whatever). Surely that’s the real fun to be had in this, the no-touchee, no smells, no taste, virtual world, am I right? So many artifacts at our fingertips that, although not necessarily possessing an inherent memory-emotional-residue in and of themselves, are like refrigerator magnets flying out of kitchen drawers, every time we go rummaging around in our heads, as we do when we write a post like this. We all do, right? Rummage around in the linoleum-floored, pantry-smelling-like-cinnamon-and-coffee, kitchen part of our minds… right? Hey, Lizzi! I know you know what I mean… and zoe and even though she’s trying to blend in to the crowd, if you ask Valerie about the rainy-Saturday afternoon state of mind that accompanies most post writing, she’d totally know what you were talking about.  I should stop now before someone thinks to ask about the two clarks in the photo.) lol

1)  Phyllis gets Grat Item #1 Honors for actually doing cool things, (in contrast to thinking of things that would be cool to do).

That little round thing in the background? Moonrise, Thursday August 18, 2016 Narragansett RI

2) Una comes in at #2 with her aplomb. While a quality frequently observed in canines, Una manages to maintain it with a certain élan that makes an old man wish for younger days*

3) Which surely leaves me at #3 what with my excellent dog-walking, car driving, video making skills btw  my youtube widget is only semi-working, if you click on the pitcha below, the movie will start right up.

4) Well, that was certainly….orderly. I’m really grateful for that (…cha-ching!)

5) I normally would say that the internet is something that I’m grateful for, and I am. However, this week it was the connections that are available so easily on-line that I would single out. Specifically, in relation to my work on ‘Almira’. I now know about the ‘Great Tri-State Tornado of 1925’  (and the hour or so of time I spent following virtual breadcrumbs was all made worthwhile in this, starkly evocative line (from one page of an un-remembered site): “1:45 pm the tornado hit near Lixville, MO . There it hit the school killing one child, John Fulton.”  (damn! I really hope someday to be capable of writing lines like that!)

6) ‘Almira‘ I’m grateful for the positive reception that last week’s Chapter 20 received. It was a key chapter. (In) Chapter 21 we’ll learn more about the lives and relationships of our secondary characters. I, for one, realized, in the process of researching the lives of the characters, that Hunk Dietrich was orphaned in that very weather event in the 1925 referenced in the preceding Item. (As the storm approached, he couldn’t get into his house, all the doors were locked and so, he hid in the crawl space under the front porch. Well, the house, (with his mother and sister safely inside), were lifted whole off the stone foundation and moved over the county line. Unfortunately, the landing was not quite as gentle as the one that a Dorothy Gale’s house would, 12 years in the future, experience. By a miracle of the type that seems to always appear in the rubble of a horrific natural disaster, (in this particular case, 695 fatalities on March 18, 1925), the boy survived without a scratch. At least, in terms of observable trauma.  But Chapter 21 will not be a downer, all doom and gloom, because we know, (if we read Chapter 20), that Dorothy is on the path to getting some answers to the question that stands between her and a happy, maybe even, satisfying life.

7) This bloghop, (with it’s hostess CS Lewis’s grandniece and 9 totally alluring co-hostinae), always makes the list. (Well, duh!)

8) I should get some more photos…

9) BoSR/SBoR  the name says it all, non?

10) SR 1.3

*  Commodores

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