With a lot of time in the car lately, driving back and forth to New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, I've had more than enough time to reflect and think. One such thought has been, "Why in the world do I keep doing this?" I'll try to answer this as I unfold my topic for this week's blog post.
For my last entry I started to explore the idea and benefits of good urban design. I want to continue on this theme a bit tonight, but in a different, theoretical sense of tribal community. When I say tribal community, think of artists and poets sitting around cafes and drinking and smoking and sharing thoughts over lunch... think of politicians sharing scotch and cigars at the country club into the wee hours of the evening... think of bodybuilders spotting each other on the bench press and hanging out at the gym for hours at a time.
Tribal community is a natural course of life worth embracing, not fighting. And the concept of tribal community is an underlying motivation for people to gravitate to life in the city, and tribes are actually a key theme in an excellent book I'm reading right now by Sir Ken Robinson, called The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. I have developed considerable respect for him ever since I've heard his legendary talk on education reform at the annual TED Conference, which some consider one of the most memorable talks in TED history. Like his inspiring TED talk, The Element hasn't disappointment the slightest.
So... Robinson shares some examples of individuals who have come to realize their natural gifts and talents-- many of these talents, of course, not being the kind that would seem to ultimately lead to comfort and riches. Ballet and dance. Drawing cartoons. Billiards. Even scientific comedy? Gillian Lynne, Matt Groening, Ewa Laurance, and Dr. Helen Pilcher have all built outstanding careers based on these respective talents. And tribes have served as an essential ingredient for their successes... actually more, like a glue. That is, how could they have ever developed into such extraordinary talents while living in a vacuum?
Lynne was almost diagnosed with ADD as a child, but a wise psychologist realized she simply had to "move to think." She then pursued ballet and realized how talented she was. Today, Gillian Lynne is known as one of the great British ballerinas of all-time, and the lead choreographer for Cats and Phantom of the Opera. Last time I checked, these were both pretty popular performances on Broadway.
Groening was a failing student in school... a geek that felt mostly at home in the odd cartoons he'd doodle during classes in which he was "supposed" to be paying attention. As Robinson believes, Groening may have "supposed" to be drawing his cartoons after all. He stuck with his rare talent all the way through to his creation of The Simpsons for Fox. Two decades running and a few Emmy's later, Groening seems to have followed the right path.
Laurance, a young girl in Sweden, just felt comfortable around smoky billiard halls. She picked up the pool stick one day and hasn't really put it down since. She had a knack for visualizing angles and making trick shots. Today, Laurance has the looks of a knockout Swedish model and tours the world winning pool tournaments and doing billiard commentary for ESPN.
Finally, Pilcher was just a number within the corporate web of science. Forced to constantly work on a tight budget, meet wild demands and not perform experiments she enjoyed, she one day had the guts to call it quits. Realizing how naturally funny she was, yet all that she still knew and loved about science, she figured she would marry the two into a truly unusual calling. Today Pilcher is a scientist AND comedian... she gives lectures or "acts," rather, all over the world.
These people all rose to the top of their fields-- or especially in Pilcher's case, just created their fields-- thanks to scores of right decisions, sacrifices, and good breaks. But most certainly, they reached their pinnacle thanks to their conscious efforts to join with some relevant and groundbreaking tribes.
So what is a tribe? Seth Godin wrote his own outstanding book on tribes recently, and basically defines a tribe as a group of people that unite around a certain cause they believe in. A tribe can be as large as Barack Obama's grassroots army that helped elect him to the White House. A tribe can be as small as a group of chefs who are fully committed to making the world's best creme brulee. But the basic notion is that a tribe is a group of committed people, focused on a cause. Tribes are a movement fueled by honest-to-God enthusiasm... and their bond is as fundamentally necessary as, say, the Native American Indians' desire to dance and show authority by wearing certain headdresses.
Lynne, Groening, Laurance, Pilcher, Robinson, Godin, Obama... people like these could never have reached their stations in life without a conscious decision to join relevant tribes. Lynne needed Broadway. Groening needed a group of fellow cartoon geeks. Laurance needed time to get comfortable in New York's billiard halls. Pilcher may not have had a tribe, per se, right away. She did, however, start winning over others with her unique, scientific comedy acts to the point where she developed a fan base... a tribe.
A tribe is more than a network. A tribe is a lifestyle. And, tying this back to what I wrote about last time, I believe a key benefit to life in the city is the ease and convenience in which tribes can unite. Tribes of beer lovers that flock to Monk's in Philadelphia. Tribes of sports fans that flock to the Sports Complex to unite around loyalty for a team. Tribes of tech geeks who can help and push and support each other within the confines of Silicon Valley. Tribes of chefs who converge on one of the world's largest culinary capitals, New York City.
And, back to my original question... why is it that I desire so badly to head into a city each weekend? Why do I desire to see my friends in these settings? Well, for one, I've had to accept the fact that my best friends are creatures of these cities. If I want to see them, well, I have to go see them. Few have any desire to come into rural PA to catch up... and nor do I have the desire to catch up in such a setting either. But the key reason for me is much deeper for me than this, and that is because, I believe, I am answering my own, natural call to be part of a natural tribal setting.
Is it not better for me to meet my friends, Matt and Elise, whom I share a passion for social justice with, in the young and progressive Greenwich Village than in a strip mall in Reading, PA? Is it not better for me to unite with fellow college basketball fans in a designated Villanova alumni bar, than to watch this past weekend's NCAA Final Four from my living room couch? Is it not better to jog through Central Park along with hundreds and hundreds of other passionate runners, than in the lonely setting of country road where I'm surrounded by sheep and corn fields?
The alternatives may be better for others, but not for me. I need community, I need tribes, and ideally these tribes should be in close proximity from where I'm at. These past two years in Reading, I've learned just how much I truly struggle without this tribal support. I had it at Villanova, living in close confines of 10,000+ other, similar-minded people. I had it at Camp Mak-A-Dream in Montana, and in San Diego, when I united with groups of people inspired to volunteer and better other people's lives. I had it in San Francisco in regards to a faith community at St. Agnes and with the Augustinians.
But in Reading-- ironically, my hometown-- I still feel very lost. I can't bring myself to invest in any new tribe because I don't think they are tribes I feel like being a part of. I just can't speak the same language as any tribes that I encounter in this area. Thank God for my friend, Katie, who recently urged me to finally stop apologizing for my failure in this regard. "You just have to follow what's natural for you, Justin, not apologize for what isn't," she said. And I think she's right.
Back to my original question (Why am I a city person?), my first answer is that I think it's actually the wrong question. The right one should be, "What (and where) are really my tribes?" If I'm really committed to social justice, and uniting with the young and progressive people that go at it with fiery passion, then where is my tribe of people located? Currently, NYC. If I'm really committed to being a manufacturer, then where and how could I find this tribe? And if I'm really committed to my secret love of writing and creative culture, then where is this tribe?
That I am not sure yet, and there are no black-and-white answers, and I'll try to explore answers to these questions next time.
