the Wakefield Doctrine

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine- [a(nother) Café Six]

December 8, 2023 By clarkscottroger

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

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

It is hosted by Denise and, other than insisting on six sentences-per-story, she maintains a light-to-a-fault hand on the proceedings.

…in any event. We were ‘talking’ to Friend-of-the-Doctrine and fellow SSC&B Proprietor, Chris about a character in this week’s Six, namely, the Sophomore. With no encouragement from her, (being a mature person), we got it in our heads to suggest a ‘walk-on’ story. (When one writer ‘sets up’ another to allow the fun of seeing their character in action. Usually with full consent.) lol

To provide a little continuity, click here, for the lead-in Six.

Prompt word:

LIMIT

“Yeah, I heard… from out on the sidewalk,” the Sophomore shrugged his worn, grey-wool overcoat higher on his shoulders, any resemblance to a knight adjusting the brigandine being lowered on his shoulders was purely coincidental.

“You ever had a saying get stuck in your head,” he continued; the Bartender leaned forward over the bar to a near-musical accompaniment of multiple rings on polished mahogany followed by a cymbal splash, courtesy of a silver pendant on a long chain and offered, “Like an earworm?”

“Yeah, sorta but it’s actually a proverb,” the putative time-traveler raised his chin in casual interrogatory towards the bearded man next to him, “Hey, Nick, isn’t one of your fellow Proprietors something of an expert on old cultural sayings and artifacts?”

The Gatekeeper smiled, “Dude, you have been paying attention, I guess the late ’60s weren’t just fifteen-dollar-ounces and In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida;” his up-raised palm was enthusiastically met by the Bartender‘s descending hand; “Oh, vous deux!”; Mimi‘s voice lit the darkness at the far end of the bar.

“That’d be the Raconteuse; normally she’d be sitting over in one of the alcoves, but she’s been on safari; I heard something about some kind of clerical error on her US visa that put a limit on her time here; what’s this proverb of yours?”

Taking out a crumpled No. 10 envelop from his coat pocket, the Sophomore read: “Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.’

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

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine- {mea culpa, y’all}

December 7, 2023 By clarkscottroger

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 the ‘hop has but one rule: Six and only six sentences your stories must be.

Prompt word:

LIMIT

“Are you sure?”

Sister Catherine sat behind her desk at four forty-four on a Wednesday afternoon staring a pile of eighth grade book reports. The dusty-susurrus of chalk-on-slate providing the traditional soundtrack of detention at Saint Dominique’s elementary school.

“Yes, ma’am. I counted twice,” the boy stepped back from the field of black holding a nub of chalk, yellow-coated shirt cuffs and a single lemon smudge in the center of his blue clip-on necktie, the contrite artist surveying a papal commission.

With a skill available only to those women who, choosing to serve their God without reservation, devote their lives to educating the young, his teacher erased the blackboard of all but one iteration of the repeated sentence; not a particle of chalk adhered to the long black sleeves of the habit of her Order.

‘The prompt word is LIMIT, not LINK;’ the single sentence was eaten by the black felt of the eraser and, in the tone of any teacher who shares punishment with her pupil, said, “You may go, Seth, I’m confident you will not make this mistake again.”

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

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

December 6, 2023 By clarkscottroger

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. Dominated by an endless drive to make all things Six, in this case, the exact required number of sentenceses

Stop the Presses! Unread this Six! Incorrect prompt word, deployed without reason, rationale or explanaiton.

(So, what say y’all just save this bad boy against the day the correct prompt word is written about).

Prompt Word:

LINK

“Has that bio-chrono missing link of a time traveler shown up yet?”

The voice on the intercom was that of the tall, thin man; his tone carried a remarkably-grating edge, one that the average person would have little choice but to interpret as unbridled hostility.

Fortunately for any internet-fiction critics, the setting, (of our tale), is the Six Sentence Cafe & Bistro where the odds of encountering ‘average people’ are laughingly scant; the risk of harm, trauma (rhetorical or emotional) or distress was readily accepted by the three Proprietors gathered around the bar, witnessing the first, (Spoiler Alert!! …and last), use of the aforementioned intercom.

“Nick, cher, tell me you didn’t get the intercom from that awful Sil’s Loans and Pawnshop,” Mimi’s voice had the calm intensity of an airline pilot advising his passengers to prepare for a rough landing; being the man he was, the Gatekeeper bowed his head ever-so-slightly, and said, “Nai agapité Miz M, I thought you would be pleased at how good a deal I got.”

The Bartender’s smile at the exchange evaporated, like suds in a kitchen sink after a Brillo^© pad is rinsed, as the Sophomore walked in from the front entrance; looking a bit worse for wear, he threw a smile at the three and said, “Ssup,” laughed briefly and added, “Too bad our rhetorical greetings back in the ’70s didn’t have such elegant economy, it would have made life much simpler.”

“What?” a treble snap from the square grilled screen signaled the ‘Talk’ button being pushed by the occupant of the Manager’s office, “Send him down… now;” uncharacteristically harsh, the voice convinced the three Proprietors that not every conflict can be ameliorated by good-intentioned mediation.

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

Memoir Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

December 5, 2023 By clarkscottroger

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

Still haven’t settled on a title/label/subtitle for this series. (First, Second and Third)

(We have found, mostly through writing RePrint Mondays that a ‘previously on…’ is an enormous help in this type of blogging. Not, as you might think, tho’ in turn, not totally incorrectly, simply put: to remember the narrative that preceded the current post* is sufficient, however, to read the actual text is conducive and, therefore more to the mood/spirit/’yeah! that’s what I was going for’.)

previously on…

Will not go into the full Wakefield Doctrine origin story. It’s: Here. We’re making reference to it today only because this post is reminding us of how unlikely it is to have written more than 2,913 posts and received in excess of 32,000 comments!¹

But that’s not important right now.²

The point that is elbowing it’s way to the topic section of this week’s Memoir post is: there is no way I would have been capable of writing this blog without some serious serendipity.

But, with the idea that today a new Reader might be standing in the upper back of the room (stadium-slant auditorium of course. hey, it’s our fantasy) lets wrap up this week’s train wreck with:

The thing about clarks that is both wonderful and maybe a little sad is that we find that discovering novelty in understanding an otherwise, mostly, incomprehensible world as being fun. Fun in the sense of a five-year-old opens a Christmas present. Promise. Excitement. Satisfaction. All drive the Outsider to smile when encountering either a novel aspect of the world or find ourselves down a path we had not consciously intended to follow. Hence the predilection for quantum story telling (i.e. we forget or willfully neglect the fact that our listeners have not encountered all the facts). And…and! the ease with which we go all neologism on spelling and data and facts. To the point of this paragraph: clarks have a lack of concern about one thing: our commitment to curiosity.

The ‘little sad’ aspect of this, we’ll leave for another Tuesday.

* my dear sweet god! is that the level of entanglement inherent in the literal representation of my writer’s thought process?!?! ba’kha Yeshua** (John 11:35)

** and there it is! the purpose of seemingly random thoughts thrown at an LCD blackboard! to remind ourselfs of a particular stream-of-thought in a section of a river with no name (aka ‘Where we were trying to go with this post’)

ok, being raised with proper blogger manners, half of the 32k would be my replies to comments. that still leaves 17k*** of real people. So, lets consider if it’s possible for all 15,000 to be ‘I want the time you stole with that post that made no sense whatever, I want it back!!’ comments. lets do the division. Round up for the math 3,000 posts divided by 16,000 comments ….
Airplane! of course.

*** who said that a clark’s propensity for neologisms was limited to words? (malapmath might be the proper term for deliberate incorrect math and stuff. sure let’s go with that)

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: personality types, relationships, self-development, the Wakefield Doctrine

RePrint Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

December 4, 2023 By clarkscottroger

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

As to the thought, ‘What more is there to say about a theory of personality that has three types and is predicated on (one’s) relationship with the world around them?’

Not so much more information, as with better style. Rather than recitation of data, (an ongoing) demonstration of effects and consequences in the real world.

In other words, the actual topic of pretty much every Wakefield Doctrine post is on any given day, which at the moment would be Monday, we ask: how does this day of the week/that particular occupation/going to the gas station/trying to get ‘A’s in school or find love in a relationship, manifest in the reality of the Outsider (clarks), the world of the Predator (scotts) and the life of the Herd Member (rogers)?

This topic, i.e. reprint posts came up on the call-in show this weekend past. The Why and (the) is it an irredeemable fault or, at least, a less than.

Our position was, in the context of RePrint Monday, was that it was like a prompt, a warm-up, if you will. Not to give away too much insight into the early years, gots to save something for the next installment of our weekly series: ‘عمر خیّام Tuesdays’ * ¹ ‘Hey!!’ (Last week’s installment: Here)

Believe it or not, three hundred fity words in and we’s still gonna post a RePrint post.

Come back tomorrow! Subscribe or like or, better yet, tell someone you encounter in your day today to come here and read and such.

sun don’t shine, the gods look down in anger

December 3, 2009

(Well, oh kay… interesting note to start a Post on… but stranger things have happened in and about the Wakefield Doctrine)(…”this just in”…’clark…the seventies…were…thirty…plus…years ago’…stop…’please, stop’…)Hey Reader! Yeah you!
Do you believe that your (personal) history defines and (pre)determines your future or what? Is there such a thing as the momentum of habit. (The ‘momentum of habit’ is the notion that what we are is simply a more elaborate form of what we have always been.) (Cheery thought, no?)Well? Do you think it does? (Don’t you dare touch that “Back” button.)
(in a fairly creepy, sudden shift to a calm tone…)Do me a favor, (After all, you know something about us here at the Doctrine because of the information we are throwing out into the world by way of this blog.)……Look back on your life. Try and recollect the things you have done, the places you have lived, the people you have known, since as far back as you can.
Now, erase the names of the people, delete the addresses of the locations and take off the labels of the things you have done (job title, education, religious designations). You can still remember your life, can’t you?
Even with names and labels removed/deleted/eliminated, you know that you have been alive, with a life that is yours and yours alone. You know, even without the names, you lived in one place (or many different places), you knew some people (or a lot of people) and you spent your waking time doing this (or doing that).
Your ‘life story’ runs from the first (and often sketchy) times you remember as a child through and right up to now.Pretty goddamn ‘straight’ line isn’t it?
(Come on roger, stop protesting. You what I mean. You are capable of this.)
Look at your life in terms of how many different interests and activities and ways of investing your time is evidenced. How different was your life when you were 7 years old compared to when you were 17 years old?(…or 27 or 77…)
(Yeah, yeah scott, I get the, ‘I gots the girlfriends/boyfriends, thing’ Does not matter. Lose the names, and they (still) are people you shared yourself and your time with, no different than a best friend in second grade or a spouse in middle age or the person in the bed next to yours in the nursing home.)
What I am trying to get across here is that the important thing is not the names of the people, places and activities that comprise(s) your life.
Rather, I am asking you to consider the question, what did they (seem) to add to your life, why did you give them your time!?I want the Reader to consider their lives without the qualification/rationalization/justification that we all impose when we reflect on our lives.

… ‘he was a great friend, even though he was an asshole’… ‘I really liked spending time with her, but I had to because she was family’ … “of course we are happy together! We have beautiful children and a nice home’… ‘I know this is a boring job, but I will stick with it, because otherwise, what will I do?…’maybe I can still pray and maybe its not too late for me…”who will take care of me if I get sick?’…

(These little quotes barely hint at the myriad of ways that we employ to make the fact that what constitutes ‘our lives’, the essential nature and character, if you will, is the same today(as you read this blog) as it was on your very first day at school.)

So?
So what, what is wrong with that, at least I have a life that I can look at and say, ‘hey I’m not doing so bad’!

(You are correct, scott. roger you can come back in the room, we have stopped talking about life as if it were totally unpredictable and un-certain. We won’t talk about interchangeability any more.)

Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? (Yes, I am seriously getting ready to close out this Post for today.) (No, I actually don’t have a more satisfying denouement for todays Post)

(writer leaves, house lights stay off…)

Alright, alright. Seeing that we have some new visitors (from Italy and Sweden and Ghana to name a few) and, of course, Sloveniaaa is in da house!! I will try to impart or at least ‘duct tape’ some kind of coherent point to this Post.

If pressed, I would have to say the point of this (Post) is that our essential natures, (clarks, scotts and rogers), will determine how our lives are experienced and will force a consistency throughout the years (of our lives).
Having said that, I will remind everyone that the Wakefield Doctrine is predicated (yeah! he said predicated, he must be back from wherever…) on the idea that we all have the full range of potential, we are all (potentially) clarks and scotts and rogers.
And, despite how this Post reads, we always have the potential to feel, act, or think in the manner of the other two personality types. In fact, that really is the purpose of the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers).

* ¹ ‘Hey!! lol we apologize to any New Reader who might be a roger with a secondary clarklike aspect on a razor’s balance between getting mad and clicking away or staying to see this if Doctrine thing might not be kinda fun. The clarklike autosome that contains the code for ‘ain’t no reference too obscure that it can’t be fun! should never, ever be underestimated as to the effect it exerts in the life of an Outsider. (The reference to Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīsābūrī** will pay off in future Tuesday posts.)

** lighten up… like you didn’t see that coming? we’re just messin’ with any rogers in the Readerverse***

*** damn right we’re claiming that word! Unless someone (most likely another clark) has already coined the term.

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology Tagged With: personality types, relationships, self-development, the Wakefield Doctrine