Part I
Note to the Reader
4 ‘‘I think it would be wonderful if someone could put you together with some children and then record the results,’’ I ventured. ‘‘The theme should be ’What information do today’s children need to help them through the coming years?’ ’’
5 ‘‘Go ahead,’’ Bucky responded. ‘‘I’m at your disposal.’’
6 And thus a book was born.
7 Richard Buckminster Fuller was one of the most remarkable individuals who has ever lived. His wide-ranging mind, hauntingly free of the sense of limits that afflicts most of us, conceived poetry, architecture, automobiles, boats, furniture---and some of the most provocative and original mathematical, geometrical, and philosophical speculations ever written.
8 There was something marvelous about Bucky (you couldn’t think of him by any other name once you had met this elf disguised as an octogenarian). His most infectious quality was an unfettered sense of the immense potential of all humans. It was almost impossible to be around him without being caught up by it.
9 He greeted all comers openly, with an evident love. You were his peer, whether you were a physicist, journalist, mail carrier, or child. The equality he offered was difficult to ignore.
10 As you listened to Bucky, you rediscovered the art of the storyteller, of the painter of word pictures who can excite the imagination into visions of new worlds filled with joyous new possibilities. You would be fascinated by his conceptions of humanity, universe, and the Greater Intellectual Integrity that to him lay at the root of all experience. If you let yourself, you would share his dreams and quietly exult in the serenity that flowed from his certainty in the ultimate goodness of things---although he would have also told you he eschewed the use of words like ‘‘good’’ and ‘‘bad.’’ You may have disagreed with particulars, but you sensed something right in his sense of the grandeur of humanity, and of our place in the cosmos.
11 And you would have delighted at the incredible range of his own accomplishments, and at your growing understanding of the marvelous coherence of the thought that had given rise to them.
12 You would have recognized that at the heart of his vision was the conviction that whatever he had accomplished was within the reach of any human---an absolute certainty that man exists as the expression of the divine creativity, endowed with the potential of dominion over every aspect of experience. And as he gently smiled and touched your hand, calling you ‘‘dear one’’ with an utterly unaffected and ever-so-gentle warmth, you were drawn more deeply into his magical world. You were his equal, a fellow player in some cosmic game, sharing precious moments together.
13 It was only later, after you had left, that the full impact of that equality would have sunk home. Good heavens, the thought would have come. If he’s right---if he’s only an ‘‘average human being’’ who has devoted his life to proving what an ‘‘average human being’’ can do---then what have I been doing with my life?
14 Such gentle but profound shocks may prove the source of Buckminster Fuller’s most enduring impact. This tender-hearted yet fiercely tenacious man encountered thousands of people in his life, and many found themselves touched by that intense yet childlike conviction of what it means to be fully human.
15 Here was a visionary, an old-fashioned mystic utterly certain of the here-and-now possibility of ecstatic communion between man and God. There was much of the New England Transcendentalist in him---his great-aunt Margaret Fuller had been one of the pillars of that uniquely American movement.
16 The intensity of his vision flowed from his own mental powers, honed by a fierce sense of discipline. He slept but little, devoting his waking hours to prodigious mental labors. Here was a man who truly lived. His life was an endless vortex of activity, and even in his last years he maintained a pace that would have taxed the energies of anyone half his age. There were meetings, planning sessions, and consultations; talks at college commencements, and ‘‘est’’ gatherings; and, at the end, the Integrity Days.
17 His most famous invention, the geodesic dome, is everywhere, literally, from the poles to the Equator, enclosing more space with less material than any structure previously devised by humanity. The impact of his thought is equally dispersed in the lives of those he has touched. And Bucky Fuller was a man who devoted his life to serving others.
18 This book arose out of an interview with Bucky conducted while I was a reporter for the Evening Outlook, a newspaper in Santa Monica, California, just a few miles from the house in Pacific Palisades that served as home base for Bucky and his wife, Anne, during their last four years. Bucky had picked the coast so he could be near his daughter, Allegra Snyder, and grandson, Jaime. (A granddaughter, Alexandra Snyder, lives on the East Coast.) His office, however, was in Philadelphia, and Bucky himself could be found almost anywhere. If you really wanted to keep track of this peripatetic globe hopper, you could have subscribed to his printed scheduling service.
19 If there is any single quality in the characters of those ‘‘great’’ men and women I have been privileged to meet, I would have to say it is a childlike openness to some aspect of the universe. That quality was present in Buckminster Fuller to a degree I had never seen before. There was a directness and lack of pretense that left me almost in awe. It was not that he was devoid of ego---he had a very healthy sense of self---rather, his ego was subordinated to a transcendent cause, which he described simply as ‘‘making the world work.’’ It was this cause that fired the imagination of Fuller and those around him.
20 And it was his childlike clarity of purpose that led me to propose the encounters that have culminated in this book.
21 As a reporter, I had discovered that I was serving as a translator for Fuller. In his communications with audiences numbering from one to thousands, Bucky constantly strove to draw the maximum exertion from his listeners; he would communicate at their highest ability to follow. As one who had read most of his books and followed his career, my ability to tolerate his complex and peculiar linguistic usages was high. Yet to reduce the concepts to the level demanded by journalistic constraints demanded that I serve primarily as a translator. There are always dangers in translations, I realized, for the translation is only as good as the translator’s own grasp both of the content of the original and of the language into which the original is translated. Some degree of error inevitably creeps in. By using children, I would be forcing Bucky to translate himself; and there could be no better guarantee of accuracy.
22 Bringing Bucky together with children, I reasoned, would accomplish several things. First, it would prevent him from using those complex and idiosyncratic terms that can throw off all but the most dedicated reader or listener; second, it would provide three children with an opportunity to spend time with a remarkable being; finally, the encounter could provide the basis for a book that would serve as the most gentle introduction to Fuller’s universe.
23 I selected three youths for this experiment. My only criterion was that they possess inquiring minds and an ability to grasp new concepts.
24 Rachel Myrow, ten at the time of the first session, is the youngest. She is the daughter of Fred and Iliana Myrow, respectively a Los Angeles composer/producer and an Israeli-born actress. Benjamin Mack and Jonathan Nesmith were both twelve. Ben is the son of Lucy Mack, a Los Angeles-based film producer, and Art Mack, a teacher. Jonathan is the son of Phyllis Nesmith, a Los Angeles political consultant, and Michael Nesmith, a musician and media expert of Carmel, California.
25 I gave the children one charge: They were to consider themselves representatives of all children everywhere, and they were to ask questions they thought would reflect the concerns of all children. I asked Bucky to hold one thought during the sessions: What should children know to help humanity through the planetary crises now becoming so apparent.
26 Bucky met with the children for three sessions over a period of two years. The results were tape-recorded and captured by still photography. This book is the result. The text has been edited, sometimes extensively, to compensate for those jumps in understanding that can come when people are communicating face to face. In some instances, basic concepts have been elaborated. Drawings have been added, some based on sketches executed by Bucky as he spoke to augment points in the text, others, as needed to impart clarity. Any additions in drawings or text have been made in the spirit of the actual event, as the children---who have read the manuscript---have attested.
27 Before their first encounter with Fuller, I prepared the children with two ‘‘briefing sessions,’’ at which I presented my own understanding of Fuller and his world, gleaned from my own long-standing interest and extensive reading. I played tapes of my own interviews with Bucky, showed models of his geometric concepts, explained the Dymaxion map, and let them look through some of Fuller’s many books. From this foundation, the children prepared their original questions.
28 After the first session, I also asked the children to record their own impressions of the event.
29 I know the encounters were meaningful to the children, and Bucky referred to them frequently during his last speaking engagements. He told me he had never been asked better questions.
30 This book is the fruit of three encounters between four diverse yet remarkably similar individuals. It is also an introduction to a strikingly different way of looking at the world. Many of the concepts may seem startling. Don’t be put off if some idea seems at first difficult to grasp. Fuller’s ideas prove to be both consistent, coherent, and understandable, as the three children discovered. The index at the back of the book contains a glossary of terms used by Fuller, and there is a bibliography of his works should you choose to explore his universe more deeply.
31 This book is meant to be enjoyed. It was enjoyable to produce, enjoyable to write. I hope it’s equally enjoyable to read.