How many tribes do you belong to?
- Alissa G.
- Mar 15, 2016
- 2 min read
So everywhere I turn in the last few weeks, people have been talking about tribes: Native American tribes and their tribal lands, indigenous tribes in the Amazon Rainforest, and tribes of women shopping at Banana Republic. Tribes are everywhere ans whether you realize it or not, you are probably a member of at least one tribe, if not many tribes.

So that got me thinking, how many tribes do I belong to? Let's count 'em:
My family tribe
My work tribe
My church tribe
My friends from church tribe
My online friends tribe
My friends-in-real-life tribe
My university class tribes
My roommates from college tribe
My "I used to teach in the church nursery" tribe
My almost-prepper tribe (It's a long story which I'll post eventually)
I could keep counting, but we'd be here for forever. The point is, I belong to a lot more tribes than I realized and everytime I turn around I find another tribe that I overlooked. And not one of my tribes exists in isolation.
There are good things and bad things about having tribes. For example, my mom had surgery a couple of years ago and didn't really want people to know. Because she would be off her feet for a few weeks, I knew she would need some help so I had someone in my church tribe reach out to someone in my mom's church tribe and next thing you know, my mom had hot meals and visitors delivered to her doorstep for the month it took her to get back on her feet. I call that a good thing but she called it a "that wasn't really necessary" thing. We continue to agree to disagree.
The bad thing about such a high degree if interconnectivity is that sometimes you learn things about something or someone that you may be better off not knowing. Tribes leak people and information found in tribes leak.
As many tribes as I currently belong to, I've probably left even more. I've left jobs, moved to different towns, and stopped visiting websites or online groups. That's what makes these groups so unique. Membership is never fixed, neither is the primary driving interest. I belong to a few online groups that started out as focusing on one thing then, through the addition of new members and the evolution of discussion topics, ended up migrating to be focused on different topics and had sub-groups break off to form new groups.
This fluidity is what gives tribes real power. Just like water, they start at a particular place and gather momentum as they move through the landscape. As they grow in scope and membership, they begin shaping the landscape as they pass and leave change in their wake. Sometimes the change is temporary, but sometimes the tribe becomes a part of the natural evironment, creating growth and making the world a more beautiful place.
I'd like all of my tribes to do that someday.