C: Cheeseburgher Tribal Drumbeats

In his marvelous little book Tribes, Seth Godin defines a a tribe as

…a group of people connected to one another…connected to an idea.  For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another.  A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate…People want connection and growth and something new…

Last night V and I responded to the tribal drumbeat sounded by Kyran Pittman of Notes to Self.  We made the ritual trek to the “high place,” an 18th floor swanky room just perfect for our gathering.  What we found there was, indeed a tribe: about 25 young women (yes, we were the elders) who came together solely because we are members of the same tribe: Arkansas women bloggers. 

V and I had not previously met any of the attendees, but when we walked into that room, it was clear that we belonged.  We had a common experience with each one of these women: blogging. 

It was magical; and although our tribal interest centers around that twenty-first century mystery, the internet, our connection was primal, indeed: it was community, and it is something we are just hard-wired to desire from ancient days.  Loved it!

All tribes have their “high holidays,” I suppose, and V and I learned that this meeting was, indeed, a ritualistic celebration.  We learned tribal lore, as told to us by chieftess Kyran:

The Cheeseburgher tradition began as a late night snack run at the 2007 Blogher conference in Chicago. McDonald's cheeseburgers were eaten, paper bags were worn on heads, pictures were taken, and well, a social media legend was born. Now an official Blogher event, sponsored by McDonald's, Cheeseburgher is too big for even New York City to contain.

The kind corporate folks at McDonalds provided us each a cheeseburger and fries.  Above you see Katie of (Not) Coming to a Uterus Near You (yes, she’s that funny! Lord, I hope I have her identified correctly here—old brain, you know…) She’s demonstrating  the McDonald’s paper sack head covering tradition (gives me goose bumps to actually know of this ritual). 

And, I’m given to understand, the two important symbols of this rite are:

           and           

We had a delightful wine bar, some of which was donated(!) (tribal tribute paid?) by Middle Sister Wines (mmmmmm); some bath goodies from our local Bath Junkie (strawberry/wine fragrance—delightful!), and were given an intro subscription to something I never knew existed, but sadly/sorely need: Clutter Diet!  (See how mysteriously the tribe works?  Don’t you wish you were in on this???) 

V and I had an amazingly easy initiation ceremony which consisted of talking, talking, talking about connecting, connecting, connecting which, after all, is what blogging about.  So tribal…  And those with the secret (to us) knowledge were so generous to advise and help….heck, we even met a college instructor in the esoteric (to us) art of mass communications!!  That’s her in the top photo in the orange blouse.  You can visit LaTonya through this link. 

V and I were honored to be so initiated, and we’ve come away from the pow wow  knowing we must study the tribal custom of “tweeting” on Twitter.  We are determined to master this art soon so that the tribe, indeed, can communicate with us as needed or desired.

You bloggers out there who have not yet come to a tribal gathering, please don’t miss any such opportunity.  Blogging is an important community-building activity, I’m convinced, and the full connection of meeting personally those whom you know from on-line is satisfying and warm.

Thank you, thank you to our sponsors; and thank you, thank you Kyran Pittman for being the point person.  It was a fun night! - C