Tribe.

The committee of me’s sole nominee in both categories. The other worthy books & words, like Florida State, excluded. The 2016 book, offered with “I think you’ll like it”, from someone far brighter & younger than me, was enlightening on our innate urge & need for small, tight community. Our need to belong to something worthwhile, to aid in the daily coin flip of thrive or survive. The word, defined as a family or group joined by blood, religious, social or economic standing. In 2023 tribe meant “my people, found”. Not all people in all tribes but a Venn diagram of those that could be counted on in calm & chaos, those giving me answers I need, not want, in the dynamic & static of the wounding, scabbing & scarring of the rise, the decline, the in between of sainthood & sinner, refugee & victor. Those that “check you before you wreck you”, that make me remember what I want to forget, that in rock bottom one can find higher ground. Those that give me worth & accept the faults & cracks of God’s only kiln firing of my clay. Those from an abandoned school house, the rarest breed, where faith, politics & shades of melanin don’t interfere with friendship & those teachers, two coaches, a librarian & a janitor who are gone but long days & quick years have revealed were in my tribe all along. Those young & those ancient. Those encouragers of pen meeting paper. Those that know me as Papa, The Chap, Miss Julie’s Pool Boy or Chef. Those that come alongside to wander dark nights of isolation & desolation & walk in wonder in the sunshine of revelation & redemption. Those that ride with me, for me & push when the gas runs out. The established tribes & the new one I tried to avoid but needed. To my most important tribe, my most ardent believers, adding a chair at the table in March 2024, to my other family tribes of blood & tribes of church, friend & work, tribes of family with different last names, thank you for payment of your membership dues. May Christmas 2023 be the merriest, here’s to ‘24 being the best circuit of the sun yet & may everyone be as fortunate as me in finding words, books, their people & themselves …