R.Buckminster Fuller

Ever Increasingly More Relevant Today

I consider myself blessed to have been introduced to the work of Buckminster Fuller in my mid twenties. For the 20 plus years since, Bucky has become my daily teacher. I read from his books, or watch his talks. He inspires me, and when I am filled with doubt, his life example reassures me. Lately I have been finding myself talking with him, as one would talk to a wise and trusted advisor.

Why?

In our post modern world, as Positive Deviants exploring the world of integral second tier, there are few examples of people who live an integral life in a non integral world. Buckminster Fuller was the best example of this I have found. He chose at age 32, to commit ego suicide, and to craft for himself a set of self disciplines that set the course for the rest of his life. He wanted to demonstrate that it was not only possible, but part of our design, to do work that was of our highest integrous expression, and not have to earn a living doing work that wasn't. His path stayed true and clear for his entire life, and he died leaving the greatest legacy of our time.

I really jumped into his world headlong, when in 1993, I and about 100 other people gathered on the Big Island of Hawaii, to spend a week studying his last 21 hours of teaching, which had been recorded on video. We were joined by people who knew him, and worked with him. Amy Edmondson, Randolph Craft, DC Cordova and Robert Kiyosaki. For the first two days, everyone in the room struggled to stay conscious during the times we listened to Bucky speak. His language and work required such a giant leap of cognition, that our brains simply couldn't cope. I have rarely experienced this kind of massive mental shift, comparable to the shift from dark age thinking to the enlightenment.

Bucky left us many gifts, not least the example he set by the way he lived his life. His encapsulation of the generalized principles have profoundly affected my life. His consciousness around his every action, and his purposefulness and sheer joy for discovery of the simplest of things, daily inspires me.

His book, Critical Path, written before he died, is a thorough encapsulation of his thinking and work and a must read for anyone concerned with what we face today and tomorrow.

He invented artifacts that we use every day, and more that we have yet to employ. He was working on peak oil and the need to shift from fossil fuels back in the 1930's. He was very committed to cradle to cradle principles all of his life. He was a student of cosmic accounting and the need for a new economics. He was without doubt, a Positive Deviant.

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