Would a tribe of antisocial hermits work?

This is my post for the August Carnival of Aros. The topic is Relationships.

Some of the time, I feel like I want a tribe. A small community of people I feel unconditionally accepted by. People who enjoy each other’s differences and appreciate each other for being their unique selves. People who can just be silent together and not feel a need to fill the silence with words. Really I’d like silence to be the main sound here. Maybe we can even communicate telepathically and not have to talk at all.

Those are the most important qualities I want in my tribe members. But I tend to find that I enjoy really weird and unusual people. So I’d like the tribe members to be pretty unconventional. Especially neurodiverse and LGBTQIA+ people. They’re all so amazingly interesting and I think talking wouldn’t even be that annoying with them around because they have interesting stuff to talk about.

Ideally I’d like us to all live together in a small community, some kind of farmland area close to nature. But I definitely also want a skatepark. And fast internet, and a nice computer, and all that, but that’s not really the point of this post I guess. 🙂

This community area needs to be big enough that we can all have plenty of alone time too. Privacy is very important. I suppose with the right people around, it becomes less of a necessity though?

Maybe we could rescue abandoned animals too. Maybe also abandoned and abused humans. Rescue and rehabilitate them, and then set them free once they feel ready. Or maybe some of them will stick around too.

So the small community will be a living arrangement, but this can be bigger too. Part of it can work online. We could help other people in other places to set up similar communities of their own. I know a few people in other countries who have talked about wanting to start something like this in their areas.

But also…

Some of the time, I want to be alone. Far away from humans. Somewhere nobody will bother me. I want to only talk to people online when if and when I feel like it.

Such is the internal conflict in me. I want a tribe, and I want to be completely alone. Two amusingly contradictory things.

I wonder if a tribe of antisocial hermits would work?

This is also a pretty nice article about tribes.