Creating A Tribe to Call My Own

[dropcap2 variation=”teal”]T[/dropcap2]hey say you can only be friends with around 150 people at any one time. They being the ubiquitous experts who seem to have opinions on everything. Need to know how many angels fit on the head of a pin? They have the answer. It may not be the right answer, but it’ll be an answer.

“Friend” is defined by my dictionary app as “a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically exclusive of sexual or family relations.” Just who you consider a friend versus an acquaintance hinges on how you define the word “know,” I suppose.

Friendship has been on my mind this week as I’ve started to venture back out into the world of social media. In the past seven days, I’ve started using Twitter in earnest, been checking in on Facebook and learned how to use RSS to follow blogs from my smartphone. The reasons for getting social are varied, but mostly it comes down to this: I’m trying to create a tribe to call my own.

[pullquote1 quotes=”true” align=”right” variation=”teal”] I find myself caring about people I’ve never met, cheering on strangers whose voices I will probably never hear, worrying about their health and welfare. [/pullquote1]Now, this is not to say I don’t have friends. I have friends. They’re amazing, thoughtful and supportive. They’re also mainly more than 300 miles away. Life took us in different directions, and since I moved to Santa Cruz and had a kid, well, keeping in touch has been piecemeal. Many of them are on social media, and by not following, posting or reading I’ve been missing out on their lives.

You Must Eliminate The Anxious Habit To Cure Anxiety And Stop Anxiety Chest Pain Now that you know anxiety disorder is not an illness, but a habit, it should now make sense when I say relaxing then I mean a complete soul relaxation which should include mental, physical and spiritual relaxation. viagra professional generic http://acupuncture4health.ca/treatments/infrared-heat-lamp-therapy/ Erectile dysfunction makes a man quite depressed and sad about the fact that he buy sildenafil tablets fails to satisfy himself and the lady by not providing proper erections it is said that he is facing erectile dysfunction or impotence. If you are a libidinous Grandpa cialis generic pills or are suffering from a tubal blockage. Capacity: Store at room temperature somewhere around 59 and free viagra online 86 degrees F (15-30 degrees C) away from moisture, heat and light. They’re definitely part of my tribe. I care about them and they care about me, if only — mostly — from a distance. But there’s the other part of the tribe I’m still trying to find. Trying to define that part is difficult, because like the definition the Supreme Court gave to art, you know it when you see it. What it comes down to, though, is connection. I’m trying to connect.

The digital age makes it both easier and a little, well, weird. I find myself caring about people I’ve never met, cheering on strangers whose voices I will probably never hear, worrying about their health and welfare. Sometimes I wonder if they do the same. It’s very different than going to a coffee shop with your girlfriends, and yet in some ways it serves the same need.

When the world goes to hell in a handbasket (or a Trader Joe’s reusable bag), the humanity I find online in places like Bettyverse or Twitter remind me that we’re all in this together. That we’re all ultimately part of one tribe, no matter our differences.

I guess that’s the capital “F” Friend in me coming out. If Quakerism had a catechism, it would be “There’s that of God in everyone.” My belief in a capital “G” God might be shaky, but my sense of a shared spirit is not.

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