Tribe, says Wikipedia, is
a social division within a traditional society consisting of a group of interlinked families or communities sharing a common culture and dialect...
typically associated with a (tribal leader)...In tribal internal dynamic an honor plays major role.
Well, ok; who's My Tribe and what do they want from me? This could take a lifetime and mine is half up. I'm making my list. I have a party list of around 300, am a member of a few exalted groups like, for instance The Madden Clan of CA and PA Maddens. To which I might add my partner, his family and our friends, Petaluma Tomorrow, the Poetry Walk people, the LiveWire Literary Salon people, I seem to be becoming a Moosette and there were those Berkeley radicals in 1969.

I'm checking out Tribe.com in search of potential Tribe members - and we went to the Tattoo Expo at the Cow Palace in search of maybe tribes and maybe spray on tattoos - and found things raunchy but fun...Felt some comraderie with the people with the fine Che tshirts and the StinkyMonkey couple who obviously dug the hell out of each other.
Mostly not my tribe; suspect many actually crave pain; and though I'm still seeking deeper connection on the astral plane, believe one should take much CARE who you let into that place with you...

The ideal Tribe is a chorus of angels and we have to learn to speak gently so they'll stick around? In my dreams, yes.

Suspect I'd find Tribal Satisfaction at Burning Man. Friends Scott & Karen Hess got married in a dessert Temple there are are glowing at the prospect of returning again - oh; they're on the road as I write. Burning Man, I hear, covers the desert with artists! Who are now asked
to compensate for greenhouse gases released in the flames and by weird hand-made cars driving crazy over the plain.

Most living things need tribes, especially horses, but that's another language. Cats seem ok alone but may be seen sleeping all cuddled up and purring so that tells you something. We don't purr and we usually sleep in twos when at all possible.

As a small child, I shared a mom-dad-sister-brother and imaginary friends Tribe, and then there was the delightful experience of gathering my OWN high school tribe, called by some Connie's Gang, I kid you not! Knowing HS frosh from two elementary schools, I linked
7 girls, 7 boys and we had 3-day parties - set up one day, one for the party, everyone over the day after to clean up and eat the left overs. Worked like a charm since Mom, Dad and older Bro never set foot in the basement!

Seeking Tribe at later dates, I looked for people whose projects fascinated me. Seemed natural enough to become involved with Institute for Global Communications (IGC), Beyond War, a project a few of us created from air called Californians in Dialogue for the Common Good. Wow! Now THAT was my tribe! Included with much persuasion, Jerry Brown, Frances Moore Lappe', Center for the Common Good, KPFA Radio, Center for Ecoliteracy, all neatly funded by California Council for the Humanities. Hurray for NGOs! 1993 in San Francisco.

Many of that tribe wave and talk and some recommit to working together. I'm doing that!
And then sometimes writing and writing at my desk it seems right now My Tribe is only me...and a coupla cats.

Seems I'm about to get to know a number of very determined and talented women and the men who hang with them. I plan to attend Lynn Woolsey's fundraiser August 31st, guest of honor, Cindy Sheehan, now recovering from a 100-day food fast in protest against our war in Iraq, a war which killed her son, Casey. Both women famous for calling the troops home.

And then September 30th, Arriana Huffington comes to Sonoma for a private reception and a public talk - fundraisers for Praxis Peace and its Dubrovnik, Croatia conference next June bringing people focused on sustainability and justice together (for the 3rd time!) and, I suspect, giving participants a running chance at actually learning to follow Arriana's directions... Check details at PraxisPeace.org.

Wondering what that life would look like, fear truly renounced. Would I send more stories to publishers? Undoubtedly! Find more times to swim in deep water - yes, and many KINDS of deep water! And if the Fearless Life were back-dated? Might this town be a different place? Certainly my home would be and I'd probably own a horse again?

Not-so-different topic: Have you heard the buzz about Ms. Woolsey's retorts to Robert Colbert on the infamous Comedy Central Colbert Report online on ComedyCentral? Colbert used every verbal trick he could muster in this case to get Lynn to actually say her piece. Of course, with Lynn that would be say her Peace - as in bring the troops home from Iraq and end that foolish war...Colbert as much as called her a drugged hippie welfare Mom and shook her hand while stating "You must be a Bush supporter" - to which comment her jaw dropped! In all, she held her ground, not letting him get away with a thing. EX: Colbert stated Petaluma is the arm wrestling capitol of the world and would she like to wrestle? She agreed, he counted to ONE and WON...and she retorted "You cheated! You only counted to ONE! Well, all in good fun, I guess. Am told Colbert forbids his own children to watch the show for fear they will believe he thinks the opposite of what he really does believe...

I hadn't been in the middle of tall trees for way too long, so it was with reverence that I shot lots of digitals of humungous fallen soldiers, the shoots that look like ferns sprouting out of them, the deer only partially seen amid the reeds in the meadow where we camped, people I love commingled with Eel River water and camping gear. The full moon graced our nights as did the blackberry ice cream sister-in-law Holly got us to make together (you get to eat some if you turn the crank). Our camp was semi-private and majestic.

In campfire conversation, dark stuff came out as well as light. Peter Byrne, Byrne Report in the Bohemian, said he and I should write dueling columns, his the dark, mine the light. I said I'm not always that light-But we played with it. How about the light side of nuclear war? We can start over with whoever's left and get it right? The Isreali/Hezbollah war? Many of the worst people will get killed off? That we MIGHT find more stability in the Middle East because it is so desperately needed? I really don't know, Peter. Have been trying to imagine the light at the end of that tunnel and can't see it, truly. The AIDS epidemic: that we become aware of poverty and disease on the other side of our planet which must be overcome and why we have to overcome it - not just to be nice; to be a healthy on "our" side-Heavy pollution from China is seeping into our breathing space (see EPA site.)

Lighter stuff came out, too. Laughter at the antics of look-alikes of Christopher Robin and a cherub, ages 4 and 2, tugging at each other, excitement at spotting a bear, half dozen deer, dozen Stellar Jays. Watching Mom and boy overturn Wayne from his kayak and his fun splashing them; Wayne posing with his hand as if holding up a 10-ton tree! Hmmm-(attached). Thank you, Rockefeller guy and Save-the-Redwoods for saving this 53,000 acres of deep forest.

Was wonderful for me to share a DVD, Ethics and the World Crisis featuring the Dalai Lama, this week. The conference video features a whole array of brilliant folks, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, actress Susan Sarandon, Theologian, Robert Thurman (Dad to Uma), Congressman Dennis Kucinich, ecoactivist and author, Paul Hawken and Democracy Now TV host, Amy Goodman, among others, the list a stellar egghead group of progressives, the topic how to stop being aggressors and love our neighbors and our planet earth.

I couldn't have been more tuned in. The contents of this Link TV-produced DVD are incredibly simple to understand, yet profound. It is not enough to (scold) your adversaries, says the Dalai Lama. You must show non-violent solutions. Of course! But I've tried that process for Iraq and now Lebanan; I've tried - and found no light at the end of the tunnel. Even tried contemplating The enemy of my enemy is my friend after watching Matrix Revolutions where Keanu Reeves is able to convince the ruler of Machine City to stop his war because the clone named Smith which was Machine City's ally was now out of control. Yea, the area called the Middle East is out of control. Any ideas on who we can go see about stopping it?

Sigh. Back to the huge drawing board that is international relations, conflict resolution, hopefully, very hopefully, the eventual end of war. Dalai Lama believes we can learn to stop being aggressors, that war is obsolute; doens't work to solve our problems. My 20 year old son, Jon, believes we will have a pro-military 3^rd political party soon and that it is needed.

Wow! What terrible rifts there are in the world - and what immense hope there is for us even so. And the Belgian Chocolate sorbet was good, too.