Tribal Connections: What Made You Look Twice?

Peace, Family 👁️✨     

I have spent twenty years being accused of finding meaning in things other people consider coincidence.

Occasionally, they're right.

I don't tell them that often.

It encourages them.

But I do believe some things deserve a second look.

A person.

A place.

A conversation.

Not because you already understand the connection.

Because something made you notice it.

Twenty Years Ago, I Was Late

The story of how the six of us met has become considerably more impressive with age.

That happens to origin stories.

Twenty years ago, I arrived late to a diaspora storytelling event in Leicester.

I didn't walk through the door knowing I was about to meet the people with whom I would build the next twenty years of my life.

I met people.

We talked.

Something aligned.

Only afterwards did we understand what had begun.

Memory has a habit of making old paths look straighter than they were.

They weren't.

Then Luana Called

I wasn't planning to go to Salvador.

Zaire was.

That arrangement worked perfectly well until Luana called me about a murder.

Again:

Fictional.

Some of you are far too excited. 😂

The experience they're developing moves people through different routes in the Salvador Village.

Clues intersect.

Some connections matter.

Others appear to mean one thing and actually mean something else.

I became interested.

Apparently everybody noticed.

A Connection Is Not An Explanation

During one of our planning sessions, the question became:

What happens when players assume every connection matters?

My answer was simple.

Let them.

Because the challenge isn't noticing the connection.

It's understanding what the connection actually tells you.

A connection can tell you where to look.

It cannot guarantee that your first explanation is correct.

That applies to considerably more than murder-mystery games.

What Made You Look Twice?

Think about someone important in your life.

Can you remember the first time you noticed them?

Not when you understood who they would become.

Before that.

Maybe you almost didn't attend something.

Sat somewhere different.

Answered a message.

Accepted an invitation.

Asked a question.

One path crossed another.

You noticed.

The meaning came later.

So that's my question for you:

What connection in your life only made sense after you followed it?

Tell us in the comments.

Then come into the Tribe Library and follow this one with me.

Chapter One of When the Village Crosses Paths is free to read now.

Until the next pathway calls us home…

Keep seeing the connections.

Keep following the journey. 

— Elias 👁️🔥🧭