May: The Month of Tribes (And Subtribes)

摘要

WHETHER WE REALIZE it or not, most of us humans tend to congregate and commiserate with other humans similar to ourselves. Sometimes those affinities are physical, cultural or ethnic; sometimes political or philosophical; still other times the reasonsmay be less discernable, but in the end, we do tend to tribalize. I remember as an Italian kid growing up in New Jersey, even though I had many great Irish friends, that my "tribe" thought it amusing to wear orange on St Patrick's Day, just to annoy that other tribe, and I guess, to assert a certain group identity amongst ourselves. In the orchid world, some of us specialize and grow cattleya hybrids, oncidium intergenerics, or only species while others are completely obsessed with slipper orchids.