Tribes...

My friend, Dave Butler, posted on his blog something interesting. Not that everything he posts isn't interesting, but to steal a pig's idea, "all blog posts are interesting, but some blog posts are more interesting than others."

And so, I'm going to steal Dave's topic (sorry, Dave--I actually steal a lot of your good ideas and fail to give you adequate credit...) for my blog post, mostly because it made me thing about that kind of tribes I belong to. Ever the lawyer, Dave identified what, in his opinion, constitutes a group. I'm not so scholarly (or lawyerly...). To me, a group is more than one person in which I feel a part, feel included.

Here's some of my groups. I'll try to be all inclusive, but I'm sure I'll miss a few.

The Taylor Family (dad's side)

The Knight Family (mom's side)

The Brady/Gill Families (my wife's parent's families)

Davis High School Alumni

Lagoon Employee Alumni

Past (and current) Missionaries of the Denmark Copenhagen Mission (LDS)

The ∆X Chapter of ∑ΓΧ Fraternity at the University of Utah

University of Utah A'cappella Choir

Community and Congregation in Farmington

Roger's Memorial Theatre

Centerpoint Memorial Theatre

Xchyler Publishing Authors

Utah Authors Group

Salt Lake Comic Con/LTUE Panelists
Margo's and Blake's Critique Groups

Co-Workers with the State of Utah

Utah Homeschooling Groups

Masters of English Program, Weber State University

I've thought about being in groups and tribes before, but I've never considered it the way Dave presented his thoughts. My wife understands. She'll hear a name of someone I know, then she'll put them in a group. Is he part of his high school friends, or choir friends, or mission friends? She's had to do that a lot since we married years ago.

Looking at my list I see I've been a part of some amazing groups. There are perhaps thousands of people included in my list. Members of some groups I see frequently, which makes me happy. Some I hardly ever see at all, which makes me sad. Such is life. 

I'm glad I decided to rip-off my friend's idea and make a list of my own. It makes me realize that life is more than just today--it's a compilation of memories, of feelings, of thoughts and actions. It's also divided and subdivided into groups and in those groups can be found a little piece of all of us.