It's been a while sense I've done one of these.The word for today is Tribes.
tribetrīb/
noun
noun: tribe; plural noun: tribes
1. a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader.
We form all kinds of tribes during living our lives. We work. Places we live. We have varying interests, religions, political alinements and play.The sense of
belonging is an innate need in humans. For example, I belong to several
tribes of people who mesh with my life: Christians, ministers,
writers/authors, business women, homesteaders/survivalist,
chefs/cooking, knitters, spinners, stamp collector, stroke survivors...yada yada yada. The list could go on forever for me. I rarely meet a subject that I don't want more information on or support. By support, I mean support as a two way street give and get.
Of course, I'm talking about communities. For the past two years, since my stroke, stroke survivors have been a major "belonging" tribe for me. Everyone's lost may be different because it depends on the location of the brain affected but the sense of loss, frustrations, achievements, and sometimes anger are all being vented to somebody whose walked in your shoes. That's a major perk of the internet. I can reach across the globe, if necessary.
With writers/authors, it has and always will be Compuserve's Books and Author's Forum. I've been a member for over twenty years. With stroke survivors, it's a small group of new friends who blog and keep tabs on each other in email like Barb, Dean, Amy, and John to name a few. With spinning and knitting, there's Raverly.
Facebook, twitter, Google+ to name a few are great for meeting people and just general stuff but is that really a community? Yes, you add friends and delete friends, touch bases with family and friends but what if your need is specific? Tribes are the way to go.That's where the real help and support are. That's just online. 
I do have real face-to-face contacts also. There's nothing like speaking/emailing to someone that's there or has been there/done that. "Oh my goodness! You actually meet people face-to-face?! Yep, I do. I don't discount the power of actually looking into someone's eyes and physically touching another soul. I have local groups for writers (some very well known), stroke survivors, and even fiber artists. We get together as often as we can.
Keep writing and loving the Lord
My tribe are my online peeps so don't knock the internet yet. Most of my face to face people don't get me at all. I'm glad you have support especially in relation to your stroke. Too many times I hear of people who get ill get ostracized or minimized by others.
ReplyDeleteSheena-kay,
ReplyDeleteI'm not discounting online interaction, but I'm still old enough to recall the face-to-face interaction with people.
As far as me getting/giving support to others, I purposely searched for these kinds of groups. If there isn't one available, I'll see about starting one. I know first hand over decades that this is important for your own mental health.
Very interesting post. I think its important to all do everything we can to support other people, both online and in real life.
ReplyDeleteSarah Allen
(From Sarah, With Joy)
Yay for the Forum!
ReplyDeleteYou've reminded me that I really should check in to Ravelry more often. I forget to post a lot of my projects there, even though all it would take is a cross post from my knitting blog. And it's a great place to find local knitters and lovely new patterns!
Having read this I thought it was rather informative.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate you taking the time and effort to put this information together.
I once again find myself spending a significant amount of time both
reading and commenting. But so what, it was still worth it!