ENTERTAINMENT REALM

The Wander Society by Keri Smith. Penguin Books| March 29, 2016| 176 pages | $20.00| ISBN: 9780143108368

RATING: ****/5*

A beautiful looking book that explains a secretive society designed to allow a person to get in touch with one’s thoughts, one’s soul and nature. By now everyone knows that meditation, yoga and mindfulness help us pursue calmness and productivity. When author Keri Smith found an old copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, she stumbled upon the Wander Society. The members remain anonymous. Author Keri Smith explains: “While we cannot say for sure exactly who the Wander Society is, I believe its members exist to aid us in our quest to discover our own deepest soul life, to help us move to a higher plane of consciousness. That is the theme that seems to repeat itself again and again in its literature. Smith compiled this book after reading and researching any existing literature she could find associated with the Wander Society.

From an introductory pamphlet: “The path of the wanderer is an experiment with the unknown. To be idle, to play, to daydream.”

Included in this brief book: The Nature of Wandering–includes definition; the philosophy; the importance of “randomness” and how to find fellow wanderers; The Wander Society’s Tactical Guide—includes essentials; time; how to be invisible; wandering meditation; Wandering Initiation– includes setting out; creating a uniform; how to invoke an inner wanderer; Assignments/Research/ Field Work—there’s a ton in this section such as documentation; low wandering; sound tracking; leaving symbols; wandering by bicycle; library wandering; random painting; How-To Section—carving a wandering stick; making a wander belt pouch; making a wander notebook. In the end she includes Wander Society Lexicon; Leave Behind Quotes; Excerpt from Leaves of Grass; the Wanderer’s Creed and Wander Symbol’s Key.

Whether you decide to take up wandering every day or once a month, this book will certainly encourage you to try it. The beautiful typeset, photos and organization of the book create an appealing guide. It’s also the perfect size and weight to take along as a reference and inspiration during your wandering. Smith writes: “We need more rambling, daydreaming, thinking, perusing, being, looking, existing, allowing, ambling, opening, listening, because it teaches us what we are capable of. The nomadic tendency of wandering allows us to take pause, to consider what is really necessary, what is important for living well.” Wandering is a bit aimless but it’s also a way to think and observe. It’s a way to break our reliance on technology and take moments to savor the world around us. She adds: “The wanderer becomes one with himself or herself and the universe. We connect with the energy of all living things. We live according to our inner nature.” Another beautiful concept behind wandering: “When we enter into the wandering mindset, which can take a while to kick in, we actually change into our true self, not the person we are trying to be for society.”

In this book you will discover that wandering incites creativity. Smith writes: “qualities of great wanderers: “curious, inquisitive, nonconformist, rebellious, daring, revolutionary, inventive, visionary, solitary, self-sufficient.” That sounds ideal. Many of us—the writers, the artists, the radicals, the free-spirits—desire to be seen as change-makers, running against the grain, anti-societal expectations and precepts. Some well-known wanderers include: Walt Whitman; William Wordsworth; Charlotte Smith [an English Romantic poet and novelist]; Charles Baudelaire; Henry David Thoreau; Aristotle; Thich Nhat Hanh; Oscar Wilde; Rebecca Solnit  and Virginia Woolf. So add wandering to your list which should include yoga, mindfulness [read the chapter on Wandering Meditation if you aren’t familiar with mindfulness because there’s such a thing as mindful walking] and meditation. So pack a snack, a notebook, a camera and a bottle of water and head out there to commune with the earth, discover something fresh. Wandering inside in libraries or old bookstores works too.

–review by Amy Steele

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Penguin Books.

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