The Importance of Friendship - Life Inside and Outside of the Tribe
Posted: Tuesday, August 09, 2011
by Bruce Horst
WryteStuff
There must be a dozen different directions I could go on the subject of the importance of friendship. Here's one of them.
A few months ago I started reading books and listening to lectures on game theory, tribe maintenance and community building, to prepare for the new design on SearchWarp which includes badges, teams, groups and individual 'spaces.' I became fascinated with these subjects as I could see many ways how each of these applied to my own life.
It's easy for me to see where this applies to my own life and the lives of a few people around me. Perhaps you can see some ways in which this applies to your life, too.
I suppose this is similar to the story "The Emperor's New Clothes" which dates back to medieval times.
“We will go to great lengths, sometimes consciously and sometimes subconsciously, to fit into our tribe.”
Another tribe maintenance story can be found in the cartoon-animated movie, "Ice Age", where a sabertooth tiger, a sloth, and a wooly mammoth each lost their tribes (or so we thought) to the changing environment, so they banded together to form their own tribe. Sometimes a group of human outcasts join together and form their own tribe. Jean and I have gotten pretty comfortable being in our own 'band of misfits.'
What I'm trying to learn from this is how to best transform SearchWarp into a place where talented writers feel like they fit into the tribe. If you've been around SearchWarp very long, you know that opinions on nearly every topic run the gamut. How can SearchWarp be a place where people with strongly opposing viewpoints feel comfortable on the same website, and everyone feels like they belong? If I can figure this out and make it work, it will be a major accomplishment.
I've been fortunate in life to have had a few friendships which were stronger than any disagreements we might have with each other. We might not always understand each other, but we trusted each other's motives, and so we could defend each other to the end. Unfortunately I don't live close to any of these friends any longer. As I learn more about tribe maintenance and community building, I find myself longing to once again live with such relationships and in a thriving community, with more than just Jean and our boys.
Yes, friendship is important.
This Article has been viewed 1,158 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (5 total)Herding cats is a phrase that comes to mind when you have "artsy" types expressing themselves, in all kinds of diverse ways. But that is obviously what you are doing, and I like the research and the theory of it all. I want to give you my personal comment that SW is a place where I get lots of positives, lots of feelings of communion. The actual articles are also contributing to my life and my array of opinions. However, it is this thing of TRIBE. I can talk about it to friends, and it actually has a sense of reality to it, even though it's an electronic tribe. Thanks for all your work.Ah, yeah. Herding cats. That is a great way of describing it!
How far can tribes and communities be go online? I'm not sure, but at least for me, it's already gone further than I had ever expected.
Keep up the great writing... and btw I will respond to your email soon!
Hi Bruce.
Great article! I am so amazed at your dedication to SearchWarp. We all benefit from it. And not every member of a tribe has to agree about every little thing. But we do have to agree about the big things. One of those would be that we can have differing opinions and respect that others do to. We can allow for all sorts of different thinking and learn from it. I like to think of us as a community of open minded writers. I'm grateful that you and Jean have provided us this outlet for our creativity.
Hugs,
DianneThanks Dianne. I have a lot to learn, but at least I have a source of great people with wonderful insight (like you) that I can get advice from.
Well Bruce, I've been a misfit most of my younger days. However I believe today I belong to the family of man. Search warp is a place where many can belong thanks for sharing your thoughts Bruce.The 'familiy of man'. I'm not sure what that means to you (I'd love to read about it) but I know that I have gotten to the place where I take comfort in the fact that I'm part of humankind. I've got the same struggles and battles as any other human, even if they don't admit it. Ultimately, we're all in this together, and (maybe oddly) I find that comforting.
You are making it work Bruce- or at least guiding it- Like any seeming magic, it bears the machinations of the humans within it. Such machinations can only be guided and directed- never forced- you seem to understand this important fact of human nature.
I enjoyed this article, as it so plainly demonstrates my original quote-" Everything in life is a metaphor for Life itself."-- Ella Camp
Bruce, convert to Judaism; we are most tribal!
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.