When I was a kid and my little sister or I were bothering our two older brothers too much, one would knowingly look at the other and say “O.R.?” The other would nod, and the two of them would disappear into their bedroom. My sister and I were always a bit miffed to be left out and wanted to know what “O.R.” really meant.

One day, I was fortunate. It must have been my little sister that was annoying my older brothers, because they said I could tag along. We entered my brothers’ bedroom and they sat on their beds. One of them told a story to the other, or at least that is what it seemed like to me. They might have been recounting a strange dream, or just about anything else, but it became clear to me that “O.R.” meant to go into one’s bedroom and tell stories.

Later I explained this to my little sister and after that she would often suggest, “Let’s have an O.R.”. Later, I found out that “O.R.” really simply meant, “Our Room”. My brothers would escape to their room to get away from my sister and me.

Yesterday was my wife and my tenth wedding anniversary. We had a simple celebration at home. It was also the second meeting of a group of Connecticut bloggers which I couldn’t make it to. I’m not sure how many people did make it, but I received an email afterward asking everyone what the goals of everyone in the group are.

I started off with my story about “O.R.”s because it provides a valuable context to understand what I look for in any social media gathering: community and narrative.

My sister and I didn’t want to feel left out. We wanted to be part of a community. We ended up creating our own little community with its rituals. I think of blogging in a similar way. Good blogging is about being part of a community, or perhaps many different communities of bloggers. What holds the community together is the story telling, is the narrative. I hope that the new blogging group can embrace community and narrative.

Today at noon, there will be a story.lab event at The Grove co-working space in New Haven. This seems like another good opportunity to explore finding community and narrative, whether we are bloggers, other social media enthusiasts, or however else we chose to define ourselves.

Where do you find community and narrative?