Such an increasingly important topic these days. I had all but given up on finding a virtual community of people until I came across Substack. It didn’t seem feasible—everything seemed too fleeting.
I like your writing (or I would not have subscribed), but I have a different take on "tribe". As teens, we engage in a desperate search for "tribe", which often (not always) can lead to misery, insecurity, and bad influences, and also walls us off from everyone not in the tribe. I have become a much happier person over the years in large part by expanding my "tribe" to include a wider and wider variety of people, such that the notion of tribe has very little meaning for me any more. I suspect humanity would be much happier overall if we understood that we are all the same tribe. Which would be another way of saying we have outgrown the notion of tribe altogether.
“The deeper I have grown my connection with God, the more He connects me with the right people.” Yes! And those then people help me better connect with God! It’s a very cool virtuous cycle...
‘Sometimes that bus gets noisy!’ - absolutely right!
I’m catching up on the Substack posts I’ve missed the last couple of days - and this one of yours is exactly what I needed to read.
I am easily overwhelmed and have some trouble maintaining relationships. Yesterday I joined friends for lunch at someone’s house - the first time we’d done that since early 2020. I’d worried about it for a long time (would I embarrass myself, would I talk absolute rubbish, would they all think I’m weird...?) but I had the absolute best time.
And it’s great to hear your latest update on Jonah - wonderful. :D
Thanks for sharing!
Such an increasingly important topic these days. I had all but given up on finding a virtual community of people until I came across Substack. It didn’t seem feasible—everything seemed too fleeting.
I’m glad I was proven wrong.
I like your writing (or I would not have subscribed), but I have a different take on "tribe". As teens, we engage in a desperate search for "tribe", which often (not always) can lead to misery, insecurity, and bad influences, and also walls us off from everyone not in the tribe. I have become a much happier person over the years in large part by expanding my "tribe" to include a wider and wider variety of people, such that the notion of tribe has very little meaning for me any more. I suspect humanity would be much happier overall if we understood that we are all the same tribe. Which would be another way of saying we have outgrown the notion of tribe altogether.
“The deeper I have grown my connection with God, the more He connects me with the right people.” Yes! And those then people help me better connect with God! It’s a very cool virtuous cycle...
‘Sometimes that bus gets noisy!’ - absolutely right!
I’m catching up on the Substack posts I’ve missed the last couple of days - and this one of yours is exactly what I needed to read.
I am easily overwhelmed and have some trouble maintaining relationships. Yesterday I joined friends for lunch at someone’s house - the first time we’d done that since early 2020. I’d worried about it for a long time (would I embarrass myself, would I talk absolute rubbish, would they all think I’m weird...?) but I had the absolute best time.
And it’s great to hear your latest update on Jonah - wonderful. :D