On being knocked down...

During the last week the tail end of Hurricane Katia came blowing through town. When it had passed our two meter tall as-yet-to-flower sunflower had been bent in half. This was a mildly traumatic event in that this plant had come to signify our renewed optimism in life. So for it to be snapped in half seemed an ill omen. On a sunny morning after the trauma, I went into the garden and snapped the top end off, took it into the house, made a clean new cut to the stalk and placed it in a full vase of water. The first two days were not good the head was drooped and dying. Visitors to my home sucked air through their teeth in the manner of mechanics etc when looking over a lost cause. Then, this morning the unopened flower head had grown and was lifting its' face to the sun! This is my uplifting omen. Where there is life, there is hope, it just needs patience and care.

After the dust has settled.

Well it has been a few weeks since I've finished Critical Path by Buckminster Fuller.
And I have needed those weeks to process the many insights I have received through the book.
The central idea in Fuller's book and his life is that Nature as an extension of the Godhead will support us in our Livingry if we are working for the greater good of all Humanity. Of course the question is how do we judge the validity of our efforts?
Bucky outlines his methodology clearly:
 The effort must be for the good of all or not at all.
 The effort must be approached with complete disregard for the making of money or accrual of personal prestige.
 The success of any effort will be measured by the degree in which Nature supports you.

So far so straight forward. So what does it mean?  Put simply, if you are following the first two points then Nature will provide you with work, unexpected financial support, gifts in kind, un-looked for help and assistance, with whatever you need to continue your efforts.


In one chapter Fuller talks  about aid arriving always from unexpected sources and just in time. He also talks about the importance of being in tune with Nature's support of one's efforts. When support does not arrive then one must look at where one has gone wrong. What incorrect decision has has been taken? What change of motivation has taken place?

Yes, this is a rigorous way to live one's life and ultimately a fulfilling one.

The Fullerine Effect

Well, this book, Critical Path, is certainly challenging. I feel impelled to re-examine the nature of my existence and my assumptions/beliefs about my life. Everything I have read thus far, has within me a natural, easy agreement. So now I ask myself; how did I get this far without having come to these conclusions myself? It is clear to me that with just a little reflection, I could have done so, but I didn't. Bucky very generously points out that he did not come to these ideas until he found himself in dire straits, and thus he expects that omnihumanity won't come to them until then either. So these clearly logical and intuitive ideas, which are not mutually exclusive modalities, have penetrated me or more accurately have begun to take root from within. I recognise that Fuller has articulated beautifully the notions with which I have been struggling most of my self-aware life. The dreadful sense that exploiting oneself for money was a reprehensible waste of a glorious life. That one had to "earn one's living", that is to justify one's continual existence on this planet at the expense of another. That being born and contributing to society in the best way one could was only validated by monetary reward. That being   poor was an indictment against one's fitness to live.

On putting one's beliefs to the test.

I have read about half way through CriticalPath and the number of challenges I have been faced with has grown in direct proportion to the number of new ways of thinking Buckminster Fuller has presented to me.

One of the greatest realisations has been in relation to the habitual nature of up to this moment human history. The notion that history repeats itself is oft quoted, by me, but I now realise that the repetition is due to our animalistic tendency to follow the well trodden paths of our ancestors. This strategy has, of course, many benefits. One of which is that we assume the course to be safe, by virtue of its' long use and the fact that our ancestors survived long enough through its' use to produce us.

What Fuller has allowed me to understand is the repetition of history, both humanity's and my own, occurs because we fail to modify the path in response to our current situation. That the path served our ancestors well is not to be accepted at face value. Who can say what personal and species wide insights and achievements have been bypassed through walking the safe route?

So the question is asked : Which is the best path for me to serve humanity and thus myself?

Critical Path

A dear friend has lent me a book which has so many lightbulb moments you could see me from space, obviously only when my side of the earth was non-solar facing....

Anyways, this book is R. Buckminster Fuller's wonderful 1980 classic, Critical Path.
Every chapter is an intellectual banquet of ideas, and if you love stuffing your metaphysical face then come feast on this!

http://amzn.to/11h84

I'll be discussing my reactions and thoughts to the book over the next few posts. Right now I'm too agog!

What does it mean?

The blog's name comes from a little fantasy scenario I've often considered....
Non-Earth lifeforms meet us (humans) and ask  how we power our civilizations......
Yep, we burn stuff.
Embarrassing isn't it! It's so low tech but lacking in ingenuity.

Unlike the following:

http://bit.ly/nb0iZM

http://bit.ly/o6P8te

http://bit.ly/aqdvfM

http://bit.ly/cZsjo5