Be as tribeless as possible.
My advice to you. My advice to myself.
To belong to a tribe is to cede some essential spiritual territory within yourself to persons who have a vested interest in your enrollment.
The tribe chews up its members. While belonging to a tribe feels nice (who, on some basic level, doesn’t want to belong?) and — as in the case of situations where violence threatens — is sometimes necessary, the downsides to surrendering yourself to a tribe are many, especially if you belong to or are near one that is heading somewhere you don’t agree with. What is the price you’ll pay for your dissent?
To disagree is the essence of being an individual. It’s fundamentally uncomfortable, but if you are in the business of discerning for yourself something in this world that might be called true, then be as tribeless as possible.
Oh, feel free to agree when agreement is warranted, but wariness is the way. Be wary of what you are agreeing to, and reserve for yourself the right to depart those pleasant lowlands, if they come at the expense of your higher calling.
Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling, says the scripture. You’ve got to go to that lonesome valley, says the song.
Since we’re on the subject, here’s another piece of advice, but only if the above rings true:
Stop nouning yourself.
You are not a writer. You write. You write when you write. When you stop writing, you are no longer a writer. You are now a snacker, a dog walker, or a lawn mower or a shower taker.
You act.
You write a song.
You pray.
You meditate.
You make brisket.
You verb.
The less you label yourself the freer you are to be who you are and not someone else’s pale idea of you.
Or, put another way, you are what you do, not what you post.
There is an exception to the rule of tribelessness, which has to do with love and its demands.
To love someone means to be loyal to them.
So be careful who you love.
The appropriate recipient for your love is a person. Not a group. Love an individual, who, like you, operates with as much self-willed autonomy as possible. Someone awake to the world and its shills and shibboleths. Someone who can point out your own blind spots and while you both move forward together.
As Tolstoy wrote “I demand something terrible, impossible, of marriage… I demand to be loved as I love."
If you give your love to a person, make it total. Then, and only then, is the nouning appropriate. You are a husband, a wife, and later perhaps, a father, a mother. But that’s not a tribe. That’s a family.
By all means have relationships! We’re social creatures. We need people in our lives. Have friends, love them, but understand that friendship is in some essential and important way, transactional. You are friends because each of you gets something out of it. If it weren’t so you wouldn’t be friends. Maybe it’s simple companionship or maybe it’s mutual financial self-interest or maybe you like talking about movies or discussing the best way to counter the English Gambit. In any case, it’s an exchange, not a tribe.
A tribe is a political party, or an industry, or a guild, or a church. You might belong to one of these, or several. That’s fine, just, be wary. Reserve for yourself the right to depart the moment it stops serving you.
Be as tribeless as possible.
None of this matters unless you are trying to live as hard and real and true as possible.
Morse Code Podcast One Year Anniversary Show
In a little less than a month we’re celebrating one year of the Morse Code Podcast with a special variety show featuring musicians, authors, and directors showcasing their prodigious talent and lifelong dedication.
Mark your calendars for Sunday October 13. 6 - 8 pm. The ticket link will be live next week. I’m checking with the venue to see if we can spit it out on the internet. They have a bunch of cameras and a similar set up to what we use in our studio.
Confirmed guests are:
Andi Marie Tillman
Anthony DaCosta
Abigail Rose
Walker Burroughs
Alex Wong
Claire Gibson
Cody Duncum
With a lot more coming.
I am not usually given to superlatives but when we did the 6 month anniversary show back in April it was the best and most inspiring night of my career and gave me a glimpse of what the next ten years of my life could look like. I believe in the redemptive power of art, and am putting my whole extra-family life over to its exploration promotion cultivation community.
We just ended season one with episode #146 featuring the force of nature that is actress/comedian/musician/social media phenom Andi Marie Tillman.
Right now we are taking a month-long break and will be back to kick off Season 2 on October 17 with Mason Mecartea from STRANGER THINGS.
In the meantime we continue to put short reels and clips up on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. If you are a fan of the podcast and the Morse Code Mission generally: below is that button you often see on substack, with the addition of my personal message to say that each episode of the pod costs around $250 and about 30 manhours, not including all the gear and space. While I am on a mission to grow the pod to pay for itself through advertisements, right now it is very much a labor of love. Consider joining as a paid subscriber and be part of our world-changing mission.
And by all means, follow us on the above social media outlets.
Proudly presenting our new movie, Save the Boy.
I’m proud to announce our new film (and my directorial debut) SAVE THE BOY, starring Randa Newman, Tyler Weisenauer, and Luke Klein. Thanks to the collective efforts of a small army of people more talented than me, we crossed the finish line Friday, just in time for the Sundance deadline.
SAVE THE BOY is a proof of concept for a feature-length script I wrote called RUBY AND THE SIDE-BY-SIDE, loosely based on Randa’s experience as a Korean adoptee growing up in rural Appalachia.
I wanted to explore the issue of intergenerational trauma, the tension between individual ambition and familial commitments, and the fluidity surrounding the idea of family itself.
We’re looking forward to getting back out there on the film festival circuit with StB, seeing all the new friends we made last year with MORSE CODE.
Follow our production company Ranch Vovo on Instagram for updates on film festival selections, and Morse Code developments.
Speaking of, last week we had a fantastic showcase of Morse Code at the SoHo in Nashville. Our legal eagles from Lewis Brisbois came down from NYC and brought the whole team! It takes a long time to sell a TV show, but I continue to be inspired and hopeful and determined. Check out the article in Linked In, if that’s your dish.
Lastly
Maybe you saw this on my IG, but we are proud to announce the newest member of the Lenker family, coming in early December.
If you want to, you can listen to a little song I wrote about whatever it is that’s coming our way...
I write, I act, I sing, I create, I pray, I meditate, I love. . . I appreciate this post! Thanks for reaffirming my purpose.