OK – I admit it. I need to get out more.

I read a book a while back on Leonardo da Vinci. It was saying something like we can think like this genius, by putting into practice these six or seven skills. I didn’t take too much notice but it came back to me the other day when reading something else. [I'll soon explain, don't worry.]

One of the skills you need, according to Michael Gelb in his book – How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci [I went and found the reference like a good student!], is Connessione – a recognition and appreciation for inter-connectedness! So, I’m reading one of the books I got for Christmas – Living out LOUD by Keri Smith – when she starts talking about Wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi, according to the book, is a “Japanese concept that speaks to the art of imperfection, and/or the willingness to accept things as they are.”

Amazingly, given my total distrust of anything even slightly esoteric and my inability to not say something when something is imperfect, I kept reading. Well, it was all about sketching a stick – and how after thirty minutes the “simple stick had become something living, moving and expanding”.

However, it did get me thinking about search – you’ll be glad and unsurprised to hear. It reminded me of something Ian “Max” Maxwell had said during one of his tracking courses and can be found in his book – Animal Tracks ID and Techniques - about Zoning In.

Once you surrender and become part of your surroundings you will have zoned in. You will now be able to hear every movement, every sound, see everything and feel everything around you…

Once you have zoned in for at least twenty minutes you will know the baseline for noises, bird song, activity, motion and insect life. You will also know the baseline for the ground, trees and shrubs in the landscape around you.

It is here that the tracker will detect any variation from the baseline, be it hearing, feeling, seeing, smelling and taste.

The good searcher – whether a tracker or an “ordinary” [although they are no such thing] foot searcher – finds things that are out of place; that shouldn’t be there; like the missing person. How do they do this? By “knowing” the environment they are searching well; knowing what the vegetation is like, knowing what the rubbish should be like, just “knowing” the area and something out of place.

This was what the original SEBEV clue field was all about – before its meaning was lost in time – seeing those things that were out of place.  I’m sure this exercise, or a similar one, does have a place in training. We do NOT search for clues and an excellent trainer would be needed to run this session and not have it slow down to a snail’s pace “searching” for clues. BUT [note the BIG but!), but if we could find a way to expand searcher’s knowledge of what is and isn’t right in the environment this would be a very worthwhile exercise.

What do you think?