The book that inspired the business

You know those moments when the Universe aligns?

The stars certainly slotted into place to secure the first-ever Guest Curator slot for Emma and Andrew from Miscellaneous Adventures.

As we kicked about options for books, I threw in a quote from Aldo Leopold "To be an ecologist is to live in a world of pain", a reference to how hard it is to understand how much nature we have lost. 

 The guys shared a knowing smile. 

"Actually, Leopold's A Sand County Almanac is our first choice, given you've already featured Braiding Sweetgrass!"

 Wow. That sealed it. 

 They had to be our first guest curators, and A Sand County Almanac HAD to be our featured book.

 There they are on page 56 of the touchstone of this emerging movement, Jeffrey Bowman's The Outsiders: New Outdoor Creativity, the coffee-table tome published by Gestalten.

We soon struck up a conversation and began stocking their wonderful wooden wares in the Gather Outdoors store (as we were known then), along with doing everything possible to spread the word about their incredible connection with the natural world. At the time, they were living in a barn in the bluebell-carpeted woods they made their living managing. The same woods which provided the raw materials for their products and where they hosted wood carving workshops.

 Given such an immersive and integral approach, it is no surprise that Leopold's book and his land ethic philosophy had inspired them. 

Leopold calls for the inclusion of nonhuman members of the biotic community, collectively referred to as "the land" into our ethical approach. He states the basic principle as: 

 "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise." 

 It may have taken almost 60 years, but here in this turning point at the start of a new Millennium, through notions of Rewilding, Regenerative Design and the growing understanding of the interconnected nature of all life on earth (as you will read in many of our books) his idea is starting to flower and flourish.

So it turns out you can trace the roots of Adventurous Ink right back to Leopold's powerful principle and this very book! 

It feels a fitting lineage to celebrate as we launch our new guest curator programme; our bid to untangle ourselves from the extractive approach of traditional business models and invest in the good people of our community instead.

 We think Leopold would say this was the right thing.

 Join us! Help grow and nourish our community by sharing this article or commenting and sharing our Instagram post.

 And invest in yourself and your connection to the natural world in the company of great thinkers like Leopold and inspiring people like Emma and Andrew.

 Start right now, with a free copy of A Sand County Almanac and by joining our discussion about how to bring these principles to life.