the Wakefield Doctrine

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine- Part 1 (… earlier that same, final evening of the Year)

January 2, 2025 By clarkscottroger 9 Comments

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

This is the Doctrine’s contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

Hosted by Denise, it requires but one thing from participating writers: the story must consist of exactly six sentences.

Yeah, this is the first part of a two part Six (not to mention something of a prequel to our host’s own set of stories set in the eponymous locale of the Six Sentence Café & Bistro.)

Prompt word:

STYLE

“And don’t forget, ladies, post your dance schedules to your social media and link to the Club’s site, we’ll take care of the video feed,” Diane Tierney stood, half-in half-out of the swinging doors just behind Lou’s booth where she could watch the front door and the kitchen and the dressing room full of strippers, “Salome, count your veils, last week you got to 13, I assure you, Rue will not be happy if you cut into her time, she is our headliner.”

She turned and almost collided with me, so naturally I smiled and managed a ‘Early Happy New Year, Diane, which earned me a distracted smile and a hand on my arm; I’ll take it.

Without the slight hint of glissando, the volume of the house-music dipped suddenly, causing the packed house to mutter un-spellable interrogatives; Diane’s eyes change from a hush of purple to a flare of violet; say what you will about her personal life, the woman had style.

The shoals of revelers, including those who hoped to wish the owner, Lou Caesare, a happy New Year, which, not for nothin’ did not count against a body, went full-on Red Sea between the currently vacant hostess station and where I’d stepped back a step, putting me at Lou’s left shoulder; note to self: the glance of approval from the man at my possibly unintended stance of protectiveness made the previous 364 days way better.

For the first time in the three-and-a-half-years I’ve know Lou, this was the first time I’ve seen him get up from his side of the booth to greet a visitor.

Extending his hand to one of the Proprietors of the Six Sentence Café & Bistro, Lou’s eyes never left those of the young woman; the smile on his face would make the Mona Lisa consider shaving her head and getting a nose ring; my sole New Year’s resolution became to develop a tenth of the man’s style.

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: Six Sentence Story, the Wakefield Doctrine

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine- Part 2 [a Café Six]

January 1, 2025 By clarkscottroger 8 Comments

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

This is the Wakefield Doctrine’s contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

Hosted by Denise it has but one rule: make it Six Sentences, binyons

This being a Six Sentence Café & Bistro story, it is most likely there will be other writers contributing views, perspectives and parallel (as well as intersecting) storylines. For example, our host, Denise’s first Six is set in the Café later on the same New Year’s Eve.

Prompt word:

STYLE

The tall, thin man, holding open the inner door, allowed himself to be caught in the riptide of cigarette smoke, Viktor & Rolfe and good, old-fashioned pheromones as Rosetta Storm swept into the Six Sentence Café & Bistro.

He spotted, in the fairly crowded club, his fellow Proprietors in their usual places; the Gatekeeper stood outside at the top of the three stairs leading down from the sidewalk to the Café, Charon didn’t have nothin’ on him; Chris, who, at times aka’d the scene as Raconteuse, was at her table just beyond the small stage, bathed in the halo of colors streaming from the laptop that served as anchor while she jaunted through worlds both fictional and real; Tom, visible in the kitchen by way of the porthole windows of the swinging doors, a ghost with a cleaver, he could be heard speaking to someone out of sight, “Well, faith ‘n begorra, I know it’s not ye style, why don’cha tell her off now …me head’s chocka, life’s too short lass.”

Walking towards their table, the tall, thin man heard friendly greetings and well-wishes from new customers and regulars, yet was enchanted by the glittering cascade of sequins that claimed to be his young companion’s evening dress, giving truth to the fact that magic spells draw the majority of their power from the soul of the target rather than the mind of the sorcerer.

Rosetta stopped at a table occupied by two couples and stood, an ever-so-slight cantilever to her left hip; there was a dip in the temperature of the air to make an 18th Century ghost hunter wail in envy; with barely a nod to the hapless group, Rosetta tossed her Birken clutch onto the table as the hapless foursome gathered their personal property and sought the social balm of being indistinguishable among the crowd of celebrants surrounding them.

The tall, thin man stepped behind the young woman at the now empty table; her smile was deflected by his grin as he contimued to scan the bar for one or both the remaining Proprietors, Mimi and the Bartender.

As carnal ransom, (or profane obeisance), Rosetta pressed back against the Proprietor’s hands as he held her chair, exceedingly confident of herself as well as her couture, and recalled her dresser’s shy comment earlier in the evening, “If the eyes are the mirror to one’s soul, this dress is a reflection of the Underworld.”

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: clarkscottroger, Six Sentence Story, the Wakefield Doctrine

Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine- stop the presses!

December 31, 2024 By clarkscottroger 10 Comments

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

Hey! Finnallly!

We just had a person request insight into this little personality theory, vis á vis ‘How the Doctrine might be of use in a situation involving a clark and a scott.

New Readers? Not only have we not changed the names, we haven’t actually used any names. Two reasons: ‘We’re a clark“. (ProTip: while clarks are sought out for being good listeners, we are totally un-inclined to make use of the social currency manifest in the personal information such conversations so often convey. Ask any roger. ’nuff said.)

In any event, the question is how does a clark best handle a scott in a situation where they, (the scott), need to be directed down a different path than the one they are on. Very interesting question. In fact, (hold on, we’re gonna create a draft post on just this topic for later publication),…. there done!)

Thing of it is, the Wakefield Doctrine is for you, not them. Yet, we maintain that with the Doctrine as an additional perspective on the world around us and the people who make it up, one can know more about the other person than they know about themselves. Both are true. And reconciling the seeming conflict between the attitude suggested is how the Wakefield Doctrine manifests as one of the more fun and useful tools for self-improving our selfs.

RePrint (from friend of the Doctrine Christine!)

Guest Post Thursday’s Guest Post! the Wakefield Doctrine (‘clarks think, scotts act and rogers feel‘)

June 5, 2014

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

Christine is our Guest Writer today. Everything that I know, like, respect and appreciate about her is inherent, implied and obvious in the following ‘how-we-met’ story.

back in Feb 2013, I came across a blog titled, Considerings. A good writer, (apparently) new to the ‘sphere and, despite being a clark, very open about the turmoil in her life. I began to write comments on her Posts, in the hope that something from the Doctrine perspective might prove to be useful/helpful. At this time, there were maybe 4 Comments for any given Post, (and) made something of an initial connection. Then, totally out of the blue, I received a Comment at the Doctrine, that read,

“I have been seeing your comments on Considerer’s posts, and was a bit curious as to what the clark/roger/scotts you mention means. Now that I’m here, I thought I had it figured out. I think. I do believe I’m a scott. But then I read this post, and got confused all over again. I’ll keep trying. :)”

my immediate reaction was to smile and think, ‘damn! Lizzi has a scottian friend! instinctively, unhesitatingly protective!’

Since that time, I’ve come to know Christine better, (from her blog and as a co-host at the TToT), and, whenever a New Reader says something like, ‘yeah, but don’t you have to ask the other person if they agree with the worldview thing? how can I know about a person when I’ve just met them?… I smile.

…Christine?

On May 5, I did a dumb thing. I played in a soccer game with a bunch of 7^th and 8^th graders. That in itself isn’t dumb, but playing like it was the final game of the World Cup most certainly was. Instead of letting the 8^th grader just take the ball and try to shoot, I decided he wasn’t going to get a point on my watch and kicked it into high gear. I beat him to the ball, like I knew I could, but when my foot planted, my body kept going. I went down. Think “agony of defeat” guy, without the skies, snow, and downhill parts but with the twisting, falling, crashing, and wailing.

To say I hurt my knee is an understatement. The physical therapist actually said, “I must be honest, I stopped reading the list of things wrong with your knee halfway through. You are messed up!” Surgery is planned.

For the first week after the “major trauma” to my knee, I was unable to do much of anything. I alternated between excruciating pain and loopiness from the pain medicine and just sat doing nothing all day long. This is not a good thing for a person of my worldview. According to the Wakefield Doctrine, I am a scott. Clark has said many times that he was excited to have some scotts in the group of readers, so you clarks and rogers can get a better understanding of us. Well, the day has come for him to really get inside my head to see how we operate.

A healthy scott on a school morning…

Get up before anyone else, cut up fruit, prepare breakfast, make sure kindergartener’s backpack has everything in it, fill out forms, write lunch checks, put kindergartener’s clothes out, make sure everyone brushes teeth, remind high schooler to take his phone, go over afternoon schedule with all, kisses and well wishes for the day as they all walk out the door.

An injured scott trapped in bed on a school morning…

Sit up in bed, listen intently to everyone downstairs, grumble that no one is eating anything but cereal, silently scream in her head “For the love of all that is holy, how hard is it to get a piece of fruit or hard boiled egg out of the fridge”, catch a glimpse of a child who dressed in uniform pants he pulled out of his gym bag for the 4^th day in a row and holler for him to find a new pair, grumble when he pretends not to hear, take note of how many kids make it to their bathroom to brush teeth, grumble when only 3 out of 5 do, pray that husband has given the kindergartener the kindergartener’s clothes to wear and not his older brother’s, mentally go through the list of things to remind the children, spew entire list at husband when he comes in the bedroom to say goodbye, grumble when he only remembers one thing on the list, pitifully yell to the family “Don’t forget to come say goodbye,” then grumble when no one hears.

A healthy scott at the 8^th grade graduation dinner…

Make way to table that “clark” husband has chosen, stopping to chat with no less than 5 people along the way, finally sit down when emcee asks the group to take their seats, scan the room constantly to see who is there, who they are sitting with, what they’re wearing, chat with at least 5 more people as we wait in line at the buffet, talk with the other people at my table while I eat, get up to get a dessert and never make it back to the table, (so many people to talk to!), get drug out by husband once all but the cleanup crew has left.

An injured scott at the 8^th grade graduation dinner…

Slowly hobble in on crutches, stop to talk with no one but answer, “What did you do to yourself?” with a swift, “Played soccer with the kids” at least 30 times, sit at the table as soon as I can and stay there for the duration of the party, eat whatever husband brings back from the buffet, watch with envy as everyone has fun, leave as soon as 8^th grader will allow.

A healthy scott during the day…

Shower, do laundry, feed chickens, check to make sure pigs are alive, mow lawn, do more laundry, check social media multiple times, do more laundry, pick up, organize, do more laundry, make all meals, clean kitchen, and basically run ragged all day long.

An injured scott during the day…

Sit on the couch and notice the furniture needs dusting, the floor needs scrubbed, the toys need put away, the socks discarded all around need picked up, the shoes the kids carelessly left at the door need put away; ponder all of the things most likely being neglected in other rooms, like the laundry piling up the clutter of school and soccer paraphernalia being scattered around the house, the pigs getting sicker and sicker, the bathroom floor getting covered with towels and shin guards and dirty clothes and random crap left in there, and dirty dishes being left all over the counters and the tables; order all children to do all the things; bite tongue almost off in an effort to not yell, “YOU ARE DOING ALL OF THE THINGS WRONG!!”

An injured clark or roger in physical therapy…

I have no idea. Clark will have to fill you in on this.

An injured scott in physical therapy…

Talk to the therapist about good pain and bad pain, talk and laugh with all other therapists and patients throughout the session, religiously follow all instructions and do all exercises at home, ice the knee three times a day, then two days after the first therapy appointment, come off the crutches and shock all therapists with the progress made.

We scotts are doers. We scotts work a room (or field) like a boss. We scotts play with all we’ve got. Sometimes in all of that doing we crash and burn, but by golly, we are going to be the best damn patients you ever saw in our effort to get back to doing and working and playing.

But I would caution you to avoid us during our days of not doing. We might be a bit on the grouchy side.

Have a lovely day!

Christine

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: psychology of personality, relationships, self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine, Understanding Human Behavior

Mondeve -the Wakefield Doctrine- (unfurly-noise-maker: HERE)

December 30, 2024 By clarkscottroger 3 Comments

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

Thought we’d end the year with a RePrint post.

(spontaneous, not-necessarily-related reflection on the past Year here at the Wakefield Doctrine blog. we’ll get back to ya)

..(BONUS).personality types, (INSERT) insights into behavior (TODAY)and a little backstory (ONLY!)for good measure! the Wakefield Doctrine

January 30, 2012

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine ( the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers ).In a recent Video Friday Interview, when asked what changes or additions might improve the blog, Claire Peeksuggested providing insight into the ‘why of the Wakefield Doctrine’. (As Claire put it “…A new Reader might find interesting how the Doctrine was born but especially why….” )

Far be it from us to shy away from a difficult task, in this case it is not so much a matter of the (historical) record of how the Wakefield Doctrine came to be, but rather the personal side of that creation/evolution/development. That is the challenge for today.

Easy part first! The ‘Eureka Moment of the Wakefield Doctrine ( nee the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers ):

In the early 1980’s, Scott (the progenitor scott) worked at a music store in Pawtucket. He was the main salesman and also ran the repair department (of the store), this included not only repairing musical instruments and equipment that he sold, but any equipment that might be in need of repair, including various types of tape recorders and other similar equipment.

One day I happened to stop by the store to visit scott while he worked. While there, a customer came into the store, went to the ‘repair department where scott and I were talking and presented to scott what was known as a ‘duel cassette recorder’ (This device had the capacity to record two cassette cartridges at once and was most often used to copy the contents of one cassette to another cassette, what we would call today, making a back up. Among the controls on this ‘dubbing recorder’ were two of all the normal tape recorder controls: volume, treble and bass. Where it was different from a single cassette recorder was that it had a Master Volume control dial, which, as the name implies controlled the overall sound output of the device.) The recorder that the customer placed on the counter appeared to be new and had no signs of damage or abuse. (As the customer approached the counter, I stepped back and Scott looked up and said, ‘What can we do for you’? The customer said to Scott, “this thing is brand new, it worked for a couple of days, then it stopped working entirely, I can’t figure out what is wrong”.

Scott looked at the recorder briefly, without saying a word and then reached under the counter and brought out some (black) electrical tape, and tearing off a 2 inch piece of tape, taped over the Master Volume control (after returning the dial to it’s highest setting). After completing this, scott slid the device back over towards the customer and simply said, “ There, its all right now”

The customer asked to plug in the recorder, took a cassette from his pocket, tried the recorder, ran it through it’s paces; seeing that the broken tape recorder that he brought into the store now worked like new thanked scott and walked out of the store without another word. A totally satisfied customer.

From my perspective the world shifted. For reasons not clear to this day, I not only saw what scott had seen (the nature of the equipment problem) but I saw that his solution implied a reality, a ‘context’ that was clearly different from the one that I assumed to be the same as everyone experienced.

That is the factual side of the creation of the Wakefield Doctrine. The personal side?

I had plenty of friends. Or more to the fact, I had a close circle of friends that I seemed to have acquired rather deliberately. Sometimes, when I hear or read about people expressing anxiety about making new friends in a new school or a changed job, I will laugh to myself. I still find (in the fact of) my own comfort that this thing that real people seem to worry about, (i.e.making friends) is really so not difficult while at the same time/all the time, I feel so isolated from people in general. And the irony of this is not wasted on me! I accept now (as I did back then) that this is just another aspect to the weird world that I inhabit.
In any event, back to the ‘personal side of the creation of the Wakefield Doctrine, I knew back then that I had two things I could count on: having a small circle of friends who ‘got me’ and living with a pervasive, never-ending sense of lacking something… fitting in, being a part of, knowing what I was supposed to be doing in order to be like everyone else. Call it what you like, it is this certainty that ‘I am different from’ and because ‘I am missing something’ that defines who I am and once I figure out what (or where) that missing thing is, I will no longer be different from everyone else.
I suspected then, (as I now know for certain) that the thing I needed to understand was right in front of me, but not having a clue as to what it was like, the only thing to do was try to watch everything.
Watching is not exactly synonymous with living, ( lol a joke for the clarks reading this) and so I would settle for watching as I knew that the life that I thought I was in was not really the ‘real life’ that everyone else seemed to be enjoying.
Finally, the moment described above, the scene in the music store. That I would make the leap from what I observed to what I knew, what I concluded (about reality and people) was nothing less than a total frickin gift… if I had a stronger rogerian aspect, I imagine I would go on at length about inspired insight, or serendipity but I do not have that strong a rogerian aspect. If the truth is not obvious, I have a strong (barely restrained) secondary scottian aspect. But that is a whole ‘nother Post.
So as the Lady once said, ‘that’s how it began’.

OK!! Time to close the Post, unfortunately on sad note…as I know that most of you already know, Robert Hegyes passed away late last week. So we will close with the theme song to his, chef-d’œuvre

You looking for the Bonus Inset? Right this way, yo. This is a clip from a Post written last July, very good explanation of the clark, scott roger thing! We figured, hey this layout really needs shaking up, so lets do an overlay Title/new Content*

The Wakefield Doctrine has 3 personality type categories: clarks, scotts and rogers. You are mostly one (of these 3) but you still have the other 2 in background.
…and when we say personality types? what we mean is, “What kind of world do you walk out to every morning”? Because this Doctrine is not about your likes and dislikes, favorite colors or foods, interests, hobbies, avocation or inspiration. It is about the nature of your reality.

Yes, you read that right. Reality. Each of the three types of personality in the Wakefield Doctrine experience a different reality. Nothing weird or earth-shakingly different. No crystals or herbs or inner vibrations required either. Just this:

clarks exist (in the world) as the perennial outsider. They are normal in every other respect, it’s just that they know that they don’t belong, they are not like other people. But, at the same time clarks are the quiet, creative, funny (except you have to really pay attention or you’ll miss their jokes), self-deprecating, hardworking people that are there all around you all this time;

scotts are so in your life (and you will get this description only if you are not a scott) but they are the natural leaders, natural salespeople, natural entertainers… you getting the theme here with this personality type? natural. scotts are the people who live life by the moment without restraint, consideration, forethought, it’s a wonder they live as long as they do

rogers (you know who you are, and right now you are denying it) rogers are the everyday, friendly, easy to talk to people that populate every workplace and classroom and corner bar. rogers will be the person you turn to when you have a secret and rogers will be the one you turn to when you want to learn the latest gossip, they are the engineers, the lawyers, the doctors and heart and soul of every PTA and neighborhood watch program in the world.

The Doctrine is different from all the other mainstream and respectable personality and self-improvement systems out there because we insist that it is not just you, it is the world itself that accounts for your life, it’s trials and tribulations, good times, bad times (we know you’ve had your share).
What sets us apart and the reason you should spend time here, is that the Wakefield Doctrine offers everyone a set of tools that is specifically meant for not only your personality type, but (these tools) are meant to work and be useful in the world that you are living in today!

*the ‘extra’ words in the Title today were supposed to look like they were ‘drawn’ over the original Title, you know…graffiti like whatever

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: the Wakefield Doctrine, three personality types, Understanding Human Behavior

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

December 27, 2024 By clarkscottroger 11 Comments

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

This is the Wakefield Doctrine’s contribution to the Ten Things of Thankful (TToT) bloghop. Once in the vanguard of the bloghops that arrived immediately after personal blogs, food forum and list compendia, the TToT has set the standard for the niché bloghops that are, in fact, the 21st Century version of the dojo in Japan in the 1800s. Gratitude, like the names of most martial arts is as often a verb as it is a noun. Hence the standard of practice being the recounting and listing of examples.

But, we’ve probably said too much already. Following are the people, places and things that have in the course of the week elicited a state of gratitude.

1) Phyllis

2) Una

3) the Wakefield Doctrine

4) I like big boats*

5) the work I have chosen. (see #4 above) I have a listing that I must inspect every week. And, on the way there, the highway passes the Port of Providence and there are usually a number of boats and tankers and such to be admired from afar.

6) the Six Sentence Story bloghop. ‘Are We Playing?’ by Chris

7) the Unicorn Challenge bloghop. ‘Honeysuckle and Provolone‘ by Nancy

8) something, something

9) the first full week of ‘No longer Winter’… it’s like, damn! The didn’t set until, like sometime towards the evening!

10) Secret Rule 1.3

* apologies to Sir Mix-a-Lot both for the paraphrase on the title of his hit and the poor quality of the photo. (with my phone, 65 mph in traffic on a bridge.

music vids: