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

Is it just me or does Christmas Day falling on a Monday feel odd, somehow?

Right now, though, it’s the weekend and that’s never an awkward time.¹ And, now that we’ve grown and matured and learned whatever life lessons we encountered, we can set on back and enjoy a weekend of writing about gratitude, Gratitude, to go out on a limb and ‘pronounce’…is the emotional manifestation of our acceptance that life itself is already complete, that we but have to open ourselves to it. Of course, ‘opening oneself (to life)’ is inherently risky. The problem being that accepting life does not, generally speaking, permit us to specify which parts, elements, features, people, places and things we want and which we do not want to acknowledge. Taking the good with the not-so-good appears to be the rule.

Enough of the metaphysics. It’s Christmas. (lol…. for my more agnostic friends)

Josie Two-Shoes is the hostinae of our weekly get together and she has, in the last year, done yeoman’s work in making this ‘place’ available and welcoming to all who would participate. (Which is only as the Founderette, L.L.² would have it.)

1)  Total Number with a bullet  The end of Winter. This week the shortest day of the year lay on our icy doorsteps, clung to our shoes and slowed the day until the very end. And that early setting of the sun marked the beginning of Summer. Because, if Winter is about anything, it’s about the retreat of life, hiding from the cold. The days become longer now, each and every day. Maybe just a few minutes a day, but I’ll take it.

2) Una

3) Phyllis I will credit with having an marked open-mindedness to the more….clarklike elements around the house. Especially this time of year. Christmas involves presents, both large and small, and, as we all know, presentation is a high value feature in the world of the Herd Members. And so, I make an attempt to join in. Phyllis keeps the wrapping paper and such in a closet and each year, I grab a bunch and attempt to wrap her presents in manner I hope she finds entertaining. I may have succeeded this year. Following is a group photo (of presents) and a close up of the apparent winner of the worst wrapping award (“Two years running! Thank you, thank you very much…”)

Nominee for ‘Worst Wrapped Christmas, 2017’
(Landscape Orientation)
The box containing the present is of a rectangular shape and is the center of the photo, sitting on a shelf, long side down.
The box is red and has the design of a belt and buckle on it’s top. The buckle is of a design associated with Santa Claus (broad black leather, the buckle is large, square and silver.)
The belt and buckle design is ‘across’ the thin side of the box, which it to say running up and down across the top.
The ‘wrapping’ consists of three pieces of silver reflective wrapping paper that has red and white spiral figures (against the silver background). These spiral figures shout ‘Christmas’ (with just a whisper of ‘Umbrella Corporation’ lol)
One of the three strips (of an un-even rectangle shape) is taped horizontally across the bottom of the top of the box. There is a second, almost wedge-shaped piece of the same wrapping paper, running on an upward diagonal. it extends to the upper right corner of the gift box.
The third element of this gift wrapping is more disturbing. In the upper left quarter of the top of the present, it is not laying flat as the other two, badly taped pieces of wrapping are.
This third thing is taped at one end but rises off the plane of the top and, with several folds, loops back down to touch the top of the box.
oh my

4) Very enjoyable call-in last night with Cynthia and Denise  Q: How many layers of reality is required by a clark to ‘take a selfie’? A: photo below:

5) The writing thing. Mostly the part where I get to discover characters and, with patience and a willingness to suspend disbelief^3, watch the characters become kinda real. Example? Sure, real quick (and weird). So I was sitting around, not able to think of anything to write and I thought, ‘Sister Catherine, she’s about 45 years old and born in Ohio. I wonder where?‘ As luck would have it, as I googled Ohio, up pops Miami Children’s Home .. Next thing you know, I’m thinking, ‘She was raised in the orphanage.’ Ok. that’s not so weird, lots of fictional characters are raised in orphanages. Then, for god knows what reason, I googled ‘the 1960s in Ohio’ and discovered that the Beatle’s last US tour had a stop in Toledo in 1966. Naturally I thought, suppose, somehow, Sister Catherine’s mother snuck out of the house and went to the concert, met someone and got invited to the after concert party and, as they say in the Victorian novels, ‘ended up in a family way’. So, I’m thinking, ‘that’s pretty reasonable.’ And I clicked on this link  and, I was ‘damn! how cool is this writing thing?‘

6) Reserved for Free Thankful Posting*

7)* (that’s where, if there’s anyone out there reading and not feeling up to writing a whole post, but has an Item of Thankful they believe everyone would enjoy hearing about, they need only send it on in (as a comment) and it goes right to Number 6!)**

8)** (we prefer the term, ‘Creative Item of Gratitude re-alignment and tre-classification… as opposed to, say, “Hey! that Doctrine guy just took one Item and turned it into three on his list! That’s not fair. Isn’t anyone gonna call him on it?!” Everyone else kinda stand around not saying anything; time, silence and positive energy combine in a most pleasing way (like a BLT) and, finally someone, zoe, perhaps or maybe Kerry turns and says, with a smile, “You’re welcome to talk to him. He won’t mind. We’ve all learned that a little tolerance goes a long way. Zoe here, once a very, very long time ago, tried to talk to him. The result was, shall we say, interesting. But, by all means go ahead, we won’t stop you! But…but before you go, you might want to look at the item at Number Nine? It’s quite an…. fascinating view on blogs and blogging.”)

9) the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules)

10) SR 1.3

1)  unless you’re a clark, that is, in which case, it’s surely the best of times, the worst of times

2) yeah, there is a certain Victorian, Dickensian vibe to the initials

3) yes, I do realize that phrase is originally referring to the Reader, rather than the writer, but the fun is when you apply it to yourself as you learn about your characters.