The Brotherhood of the Leaf

Posted By The Cigar Soldier on February 12, 2013

Social networking sites can be a great tool. Heck I personally use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for both personal and business reasons as well as for The Brotherhood of the Leaf. They are a great way to stay in touch with friends, colleagues, classmates and of course for groups like ours to spread the word about our Cigar Nights. Besides running our little rag tag bunch of smoke induced alcoholics, I am semi active on many other cigar pages and recently had a revelation about most if not all of them. I also realized that after four glasses of Buffalo Trace Bourbon I have difficulty spelling but I’ll stick to writing about internet cigar groups.

Most of these so called cigar pages tend to think of themselves as “groups” or “clubs”. Hell, one of them is even called Cigar Club. Now my intent is not to shit on any group that promotes the cigar lifestyle or brings lovers of the leaf together by sharing stories and pictures of us enjoying our favorite past time. I am all for it and based on the factual evidence that I’ve been shouting the joys of cigar smoking on this site years before most of these “groups” even thought of forming, I think it gives me the right to speak out about them. If you disagree, I’m going to do it anyway.

Just because you gather a group of people with a common interest and give them a page on a social networking site, it doesn’t make you a real club. Sorry but that’s how it works. I constantly see these guys posting pictures of their selves to show off what they smoke or how often they are lighting up throughout the day but they are missing the best part of cigars. Camaraderie. There is nothing wrong with a solitary stogie every now and then but it doesn’t top true interaction with another human being sitting there in the flesh with you instead of in a chat window on the internet. That is why we get together once a month and share stories of having sex with goats or what type of retirement planning you’re doing, because it’s FUN!

I’ve also noticed that many of these groups are trying to come up with logos or create t-shirts in an effort to make them seem more like a real club instead of just a bunch of people that like cigars and found a page where they can post pictures of themselves with cigar in hand alone on the back patio. They are attempting to replicate what we already have.  (http://www.cigarnightonline.com/club-gear-new/)  Sure our Facebook page is not very active some months and I don’t always get around to sharing my unlimited wisdom with you as often as I should but we never miss a Cigar Night. You guys show up in your Brotherhood shirts and we smoke, drink and tell stories that would make Richard Pryor blush. We have cool clothing that shows your undying allegiance to the club and honors the best part of being a cigar smoker, enjoying cigars with other cigar smokers. I wish these groups would just stop trying to see how many people they can get to LIKE their page and start seeing how many guys they can get in their hometown to gather for the best part of the cigar lifestyle.

When I think about what we have put together, I realize that we are pretty lucky to have such loyal members who look forward to getting together and growing the friendships created with guys they may have never met if it were not for the cigar. It’s really not the same thing when only being connected to somebody through a computer screen. We’re all brothers of the leaf if we share a passion for cigars but only when you become true friends who share in the ups and downs of each other’s lives with a supportive hand shake or a hug, are we truly part of the Brotherhood of the Leaf. Those “clubs” need to take a few cues from what you guys have helped create and start up their own local chapters of The Brotherhood of the Leaf so they can see firsthand what is being missed when you’re only connected together online.

Thanks to you guys for becoming my Brothers of more than the Leaf.

The Cigar Soldier

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