the Wakefield Doctrine

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

Busy week ahead, need to keep the rhythm strong, so this, a Monday morning Post-ette.

I’m determined to have my writing schedule keep pace with self-imposed demands, a task I gladly accept. There is a Six Sentence Story to get ready for* and work on Chapter 1 of Blogdominion and, hopefully, a Finish the Sentence Friday. In addition to that, I’m committing to writing at least one traditional Wakefield Doctrine Post each week. I’d like to pull in Lizzi, now back from her walkabout in the New World, to start us off. (From a Comment on the TToT this weekend), our Ms. Rogers say,

“Yes. I think we take from each other on that – we’ve both been there, both done that, both will do the same again in future – and always mindfully (taking notes) in the knowledge that whilst we’re always alone, we also aren’t, and can (if nothing else) be USEFUL in these times when otherwise it might seem more prudent to curl into a ball and cry.”

As is her way, L keyed on one of my favorite topics… concepts… clark-insights, whatever the word is, identification. Learning to identify, (with other clarks), represents the single most beneficial thing to come out of the Doctrine, at least in terms of benefitting those Readers with the personal reality of the Outsider (aka clarks). That’s not to say that our scottian and rogerian friends do not, or cannot, benefit by this simple (yet very difficult) choice of perception. Disclaimer: the concept of ‘identification with others’ is very not original with the Doctrine. One might even say that it, identification, is an inherent relationship among (and between) people since time immemorial. It has always existed and it has always offered an opportunity to get beyond the confines of ‘me’. That being said, for those of us here, learning about the (additional) perspective on life that is the Wakefield Doctrine, who are clarks are focused on ‘how to step in from the Outside’**. Identifying with other clarks affords us one more avenue to become a real person.

The Comment thread on yesterday’s TToT that Lizzi initiated, will say it better than I can, here on a pre-dawn Monday morning.

Other stuff.  Blogdominion. (Warning! what follows is a characteristic clarklike lament that treats self-improvement like it was a setback. We are so crazy when it comes to stuff like that!  Man! you’d think we want to stay the same and never improve and are repelling the honest-no-big-deal compliments like… well, like clarks!  jeez!)
Anyway. I’m really enjoying this learning to write thing! Which makes total Doctrine sense and serves both as an illustration of the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine and as an ‘Close’ to this Post!

clarks enjoy learning things, (see footnote** below and the Page on clarks), and when something engages our interest, we enjoy acquiring new skills. This enthusiasm naturally invites the good wishes of the people around us (the scotts and rogers). We (clarks) shy away from the compliments because a) it makes us the center of attention and, therefore, subject to scrutiny, which may extend beyond the immediate subject and 2) we are afraid to change, or better to say, we are afraid that self-improvement makes us even more different from those around us and we risk losing what we think we have or… worse, we lose the special feature of being Outsiders and run the risk of turning into just another person.

ok, that’ll be quite enough for today. Gotta save some subjective angst for zoe’s Stories and the Serial!

*the careful preparation for which consists of:

• Monday: don’t look
• Tuesday: no! I mean it! do not look
• Wednesday: ok…look, now don’t think about it until later*
• (Wednesday)* unless you have an idea for a story**
• (Wednesday later)** yeah, right, like that’s gonna happen… why do I do this to myself!?!***
• Wednesday very late)*** well, cause there’s a bunch of skilled bloggers and, no matter what, if you participate, your own skills will improve and besides they liked that one last week… or the week before, hey! ‘last week or the week before’ that sounds interesting
• Thursday: what was I thinking?!?! ‘last week or the week before’  what does that even mean?!?!  damn! time to write something anything and hit
• Thursday (at some point): Publish

** the nature of the personal reality (aka ‘worldview’) of clarks is that of the Outsider. A more complete description of this worldview can be found on the Page on clarks…. a less complete description would be: clarks are the people who know that that they are different and this difference sets them apart (not above or over others…apart from) all the people in: their families (growing up), their friends at school (learning about the world) and at work and in marriage and while engaged in living. clarks perceive the world as being ‘out there’… a separate place. clarks believe that they are different because of something within them, most likely, something they didn’t learn that everyone else clearly has learned and so, clarks search the world of the rational, the intellectual, the ‘knowing about’, all in the increasingly desperate drive to learn what everyone seems to already know. Of course, as everyone else knows, it’s not in the mind, it’s in the heart. Overlooking this does not deprive the clarks of the capacity to be like everyone else, overlooking this does make them clearly different. And that’s why clarks mumble a lot and laugh at odd things and will do anything for a friend (while avoiding accepting credit), because we are searching for what, once we learn it, will make us real people.