Boomerang! Blog

Monday, January 19, 2009
Coming soon… A Gathering of the Tribe

When I sat down 19 years ago to write brochure copy about this untested medium I had in mind, I wrestled with scores of ideas before coming up with the phrase: “Do you remember the sense of power that came in the mail with your secret decoder ring"? For me, that captured the promise of BOOMERANG!… the power, the excitement, the mystery.

Since then, we’ve done pretty doggone well on the story part. But in my writerly focus on content over the years, I forgot the delicious decoder-ring component that accompanies tribal membership… the secret handshake, coded-message kind of stuff that makes being a kid worth the price of admission.

I mention “tribe”, because before they are introduced to adulthood, kids have a common innocence, curiosity – and yes, fierceness. By dictionary definition, a tribe is “a society or division of a society whose members have common ancestry, customs, beliefs, and leadership.”

Common ancestry? Sure. We all came from parents who love us, who commit outrageously courageous acts to preserve our well being, yet who are sometimes oblivious to those things that matter most.

Common Customs? Talking into the night with friends, snow ice cream, reading a good book under the covers by flashlight, obsessing over our favorite music and/or sports team, shoving embarrassing stuff underneath our beds. Check.

Common Beliefs? I think we can all safely say that no matter HOW much we like school, it lasts a little too long -- as does winter. For that matter so does time “inside”. Dessert should be served first at dinner; toys rule over clothes as birthday gifts. Check.

Leader? Admittedly, #44 has a lot on his plate. So until he gets around to building chocolate factories in every community -- Mr. Willy Wonka

That’s the dictionary stuff –and a little on the “light “ side. Like so many other concepts, a deeper, truer essence of “tribe” lies underneath… in murmurs, longings and imaginings that never quite make it beyond the subconscious: A sense of justice…. affinity with nature… a sense of optimism… unbridled curiosity.

Lets face it BOOMERS: kids are a tribe. So we are going to develop one part of our site as a comfortable place for our tribe to gather. OK. So in terms of “gatherings” this is second best… to an oversized blue Bugatti convertible stopping by your house to ferry your kids to a weeklong convention of waterfights, campfires, bracelet-making and long, long hours of storytelling. We’ll keep that for the third act.

What we have in mind for now is a Secret Website Portal that will transport your kids to a place where they can take BOOMERANG! stories to the next dimension: Photos of our Turning Points subjects; snapshots gathered from Toby’s American Journeys with Gramps; a video tour of Tucker Jones official treehouse office and pics from BOOMERANG! studios. That’s what we’ll provide. But we also need pictures, letters, poems and photographs from members of the tribe. About what BOOMERANG! stories mean to you… how ideas in BOOMERANG! have shown up in your own house… about where we should take this from here.

I’m writing a cool story at the moment about living with less. Before I get back to that, I want to offer you the first of many glimpses into life here at the BOOMERANG! spread. The teepee was erected by Natalie. Bo (self-portrait) is the photographer.

posted by Boomerang! 9:54 AM

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