Defining what makes a tribe can be sketchy. Likening it to something most of us have gone through might bring the notion to life. Let's consider the creation of a tribe within the dynamics of high school. But in this tribe-building school, those fatigued stereotypes of catty cliques and ersatz popularity no longer have weight.
Instead of blond Barbie with the big ones for Homecoming Queen, you've got Suzette, a poly-pierced goth who loves Baudelaire and French cooking—she's started the Francophile Dead Poets and Lively Eats Society for after-school frolics.
And her stud muffin isn't the bronco-biceps captain of the football team, but Terwilliger, the geekspeak propeller head who designed a Facebook app that plays Crimson and Clover backwards at maximum volume when enemies visit your page, and some buttery Al Green tune when your squeeze drops in. He can't count all his pals because his code—and his attitude—is strictly open source: it's all free.
Suzette and Terwilliger are the king and queen—the leaders—because when they get together, everyone eats a lot of great crepes and drinks a lot of Beaujolais (oh, this is high school—a lot of cellared grape juice), shares stories, and uploads YouTube videos of themselves. They connect. The connections go both ways, they are personal, there are acknowledgments and praise, there's room for creativity and expression. S&T created a tribe.
If the high school metaphor doesn't work for you, substitute your favorite Olympic sport that needs cooperation, leadership and teamwork.
Say, curling.
I wish my high school experience were like that, Tom. (: Great post!
Posted by: Pace | December 10, 2008 at 01:52 PM