About Mojave Misanthrope

In the beginning…

Like most people, I went through K–12 without ever being taught how the world really works. And when I say the world, I am talking about the living world - the ecological systems that sustain life, the geological mechanics of the Earth, the concepts of deep time, and the consequences of human overreach. The living world was a backdrop, not a subject.

It wasn’t until I took a few classes at my local community college, as part of my general ed requirements, that everything changed. I was introduced to the geological and ecological systems that shape our planet. I learned how everything is interconnected, how long it takes for a species to evolve and adapt, and how quickly humans are unraveling those systems. I saw clearly for the first time that we’re digging ourselves into a hole we may not be able to climb out of.

Somewhere in that same time, one of my professors invited me and some of her other students to her 180-acre ranch in Joshua Tree National Park in 2002. This was no ordinary ranch. It was completely off limits to the public and surrounded by the nearly 800,000 acres of protected park land. What I felt there in this place was indescribable. Like some ancient part of me had been reactivated by that amazing landscape.

Down the rabbit hole I went—fueled by education, outrage, wonder, and grief.

Why shop Mojave Misanthrope

This store was born out of that shift in awareness. A response to a culture that places little value on what’s irreplaceable.

There’s a term for what I had before and what many people today suffer from: plant blindness—the tendency to overlook plants in our environment, to see them as decoration instead of life forms with critical roles, or to not even see them at all! Literally! I work and live in Joshua Tree habitat and some of my coworkers did not know what a Joshua Tree looked like! This affliction is often accompanied by ecosystem blindness, where entire habitats are erased in the name of “progress” because we’ve been trained not to see their value.

Everything in this shop is an act of resistance to that erasure. A reminder to slow down, look closer, and recognize the wild world that still exists, if only we’d notice it, and that our existence is deeply intertwined and completely dependent on it!

This isn’t about pretty designs, flashy website design, or trendy sustainability slogans.

This is about perspective.

It’s about naming what matters before it’s gone. It’s about using your own body to speak up for the voiceless.

This is a place for the misfits who look down at the ground (and out their side windows instead of the windshield when they are driving) and see something sacred.

At Mojave Misanthrope, we see the beautiful and the ugly—and we highlight both, because both are real and both are worth talking about (and occasionally drop an F-bomb or two).

You’re not alone and you are among friends here at Mojave Misanthrope.