Part V
Through the Eyes of a Child
4 After the first session, I asked the children to write a paper, any length and in any style, describing their day with Bucky. The results were delightful.
MY DAY WITH BUCKMINSTER FULLER
7I can simply start by saying that Mr. Fuller is quite a remarkable person. I’m just sorry that I didn’t make a decision like his (a decision not to believe everyone, in order to find not necessarily more correct answers, but more trustworthy ones---for he came to the conclusions himself).
8 When we---Mr. Brenneman (the writer), Mr. Myrow (the sound man), Ben, Rachel (two other kids approximately my age), and I---were first introduced to Mr. Fuller, it was quite ordinary, simple, and relaxed. Later I found, not only was he not ordinary or simple, he was a very brilliant person with an extraordinary concept of things.
9 As he stood in the doorway, I quickly looked at him. He was wearing a pair of glasses and had very short hair that was a whitish color. Before we were ready to record the conversation, I must admit I was a little nervous. To be honest, about a week before I met Mr. Fuller, Mr. Brenneman asked me to write a few questions for Buckminster Fuller. He was sort of conducting an experiment. Mr. Brenneman wanted Mr. Fuller to express his ideas to younger children. At the time, I didn’t even know who Buckminster Fuller was. I felt this experience was no major event. Not only was I wrong, but when we got out of the car to go into his house, I shook like a leaf.
10 In actuality, when we arrived Mr. Fuller wasn’t home, so we walked around the block. However, I still shook. Mr. Fuller looked like an elderly man, quite elderly in fact. I soon found out he was eighty-five years old. This, of course, did not affect his agility---not mentally. We all entered his house, which seemed normal except for a few things such as little decorations. We were all seated around a round table. Mr. Fuller excused himself and left the room for a second. In the meantime, Mr. Brenneman assembled and situated all his camera equipment, and Mr. Myrow hooked up his rather large tape recorder and placed a microphone at the edge of the table. Mr. Fuller then entered the room carrying two bags. He laid them down on the floor. The materials that occupied the bags consisted of foot-long sticks and three-inch red rubber tubes. With these you would be quite capable of building geometric figures.
11 I began thinking he was going to build a geodesic dome (which he invented) right before our very eyes! Of course that was silly of me. He wouldn’t do a thing like that. He already had made one. In front of us children were papers covered with questions we were prepared to ask him. Apparently he didn’t even know what they were, for he said ‘‘What are those?’’ We all spoke up at once saying basically that they were questions about the future we’d like to ask him. All the questions were good questions, even though mine were written slightly sloppily. But Rachel’s were ‘‘humdingers,’’ so to speak. Mr. Fuller asked if we wouldn’t ask them at the moment, so I folded my paper and slipped it in my pocket.
12 He then began telling us how his teachers taught him some incorrect things. In order to illustrate that point, he assembled a square from the sticks and tubing. He announced that a square doesn’t exist and illustrated this by holding up the figure he had made. It wouldn’t hold its shape. The sides kept moving and the angles kept changing. It would be almost impossible to find the surface area, because you could be capable of making this square have a million different surface areas. This fact was amazing, and ever since that day, I couldn’t get over it. Mr. Fuller took even more sticks from the table and assembled a cube. Sure enough, it collapsed over on its side. But then I began to wonder if it was possible to make this stable. I looked at the cube and found you would be able to stabilize it. In order to do this, you would just place a cross on each surface of the cube, so I asked Mr. Fuller if a cross would do this. Mr. Fuller told me that even one stick placed diagonally would do it. I must say Mr. Fuller trusts thoroughly in triangles.
13 A little while before this subject came up, Mr. Fuller had told us about the tetrahedron and had assembled one from his sticks and rubber tubing. He removed one stick from the base of the tetrahedron and asked me to reassemble another similar figure. When I had completed it, he requested that I place the tetrahedron upside down inside the other one. I scrutinized the figure and realized that essentially this figure was a cube. We discussed this for a while and soon we all felt it was time for an intermission.
14 During this break we all ate lunch except Mr. Fuller, who went off to another room while we ate. Most of my conversation consisted of very few words. When I opened my mouth, about the only thing that came out was ‘‘Isn’t that neat how there’s no such thing as a square? Isn’t it?!!!’’ Other than that I would say something like ‘‘Please pass the salt.’’ As we tidied up after ourselves, Mr. Fuller entered the room.
15 By then everyone was ready to go back to it, so we all sat down at the table. Mr. Fuller said he was prepared to answer our questions, so we all took out our papers. Rachel began, and the questions went around the table until I had to ask one. Before I met Mr. Fuller, Mr. Brenneman had told me about his distrust in some of the things his teachers taught. So as a result, I asked the question ‘‘Will we have the same educational system that we have now a hundred or so years from now?’’ He didn’t think so. He said that by that time there would probably be computers that we would go over to and type out a question and it would answer. As the questions went around again, I thought of this. It would be amazing to fit so many ideas and answers into a computer no bigger than, let’s say, a typewriter.
16 Once again the questions came around to me and I spoke up, asking, ‘‘Will we have the same recreational activities that we do now?’’ He replied with ‘‘A long time ago, you had to be extremely wealthy to play things like tennis or golf. Soon a jet pack will be developed that anyone can connect to their back. Then they can shoot around the sky.’’ I thought this was incredible. I wish they would hurry up and invent it! I thought.
17 We finally finished up with questions. Then Mr. Fuller gave each of us a geodesic globe that you assembled by yourself, and I had him sign the back. After Mr. Fuller went to his room, Mrs. Fuller entered and said, ‘‘We have a lovely pool in the back. Would you like to go swimming?’’ I thought it would be fun, so I accepted, but then I realized I had no swimming trunks. ‘‘That’s no problem,’’ she said. ‘‘You can wear a pair of Bucky’s shorts.’’ So I tried them on. They were slightly big, so in order to make them fit I pinned them tighter. So I swam a bit and had a wonderful time. All in all, the day was fabulous and I hope to meet him again and really I can simply end by saying Mr. Fuller is quite a remarkable person.
BUCKY
21I remember Bucky as a sweet, lovable man. However on my way there I had doubts. Before we even got in the car to go to his house I felt unsure and shaky. When we arrived early I was quite nervous but wanted to cover it up. As we walked over to a bakery I began to feel more and more sure of myself. By the time he opened his door I forgot I was nervous.
22 Bucky was very outgoing and we got to know him (and his wife) quite fast. When we first sat down he couldn’t get our names straight because he’s hard of hearing, but we quickly jumped that obstacle.
23 He was quick to start a conversation, so we got straight to work. As we started to talk we noticed how much there was to say. He talked about math and school first. I got a little bewildered with the information that he gave us because there was so much of it. The more he talked about school, the more he talked about his childhood. I think when he talks to people it is a form of telling his history.
24 When we broke for lunch there was a sense of unclarity, because of all that was happening and a nervousness of whether it was going all right. We had a big lunch and then resumed our discussion. This time there were open questions.
25 Questions after questions were asked on all subjects, including politics. I enjoyed this time best, but I don’t think Bucky liked it as much. Every type of question was asked, but he liked the ones where he could expand on to several topics, like ‘‘What were your first thoughts as a thinker?’’
26 Bucky also liked it when people questioned what he said to answer our questions. He greatly encouraged questions and that was how he became what he was. I agree with him, but people can find you irritating if you ask too many questions.
27 I felt very satisfied when it was all finished, but now that I know what he’s like I have more questions I would like to ask him.
28 His house was located near the beach. It was not out of the ordinary or modernized in any visible way (like I had expected). Instead it was a ordinary house and decorated normally. The neighborhood he lived in was quiet and not very busy. In other words, if you just look in his living room, dining room, and kitchen you wouldn’t guess it was his house. Despite his house Bucky is a very special and unordinary person. I had a very special time and I would just like to say so.
AN AFTERTHOUGHT
30The day we spent with Buckminster Fuller was very important to me. He denied just about everything I had learned in geometry from my school. Most importantly, he gave me a new way of looking at the world. He feels that what is happening on ‘‘Spaceship Planet Earth’’ is good and that everything in the Universe is good (and if it’s not in the Universe, it doesn’t exist). It’s just that sometimes things could be a little bit better.
31 I agreed with a lot of what he said; however, sometimes I didn’t. In my opinion, people take the wrong approach of always saying yes to things they don’t understand. I didn’t understand everything he talked about, so I don’t know if I agree with him on all of his theories. So don’t let anyone fool you by saying E = mc2. It might be wrong.
32 Our day with Bucky added a very special addition to my education. I hope that those who read the book that will tell about our experience will gain as much from it as I did. I am more aware of the many possibilities in the universe now that Bucky has shown us new portholes to look through. It is a world full of promises.
A DAY OF LEARNING AND EXPLORING WITH BUCKY
36Saturday, June 14, 1980, Dick Brenneman took Ben Mack, Jonathan Nesmith, and me to Bucky’s house. As we were a little early, everybody, including Dick and Daddy [Fred], took a walk. We got back. Bucky greeted us warmly and showed us to some seats and a table where we could discuss and explore. When we were settled and Dick and Daddy had set up their photographic and tape equipment the meeting began.
37 First Bucky began discussing the main principles of his explorations. He talked about the fact that when the teacher explained things that she only showed one side of the subject and never encountered the other side of the blackboard. He explained that some people didn’t notice that fact. Then he took his pen and paper and began showing us some of the main laws and facts of nature and how one may find those facts and how they worked. Like Mother Nature works on triangles and hexagons. And the law of doing more with less. When he had gotten about an hour and a half of information into our heads we changed into testing that information by building models that Bucky provided. We examined the models and studied the fact that the square would flop and the triangle would remain stable.
38 For lunch Ben’s mother had dished up a variety of foods from yogurt to chicken. I think that lunch was well appreciated.
39 After lunch Bucky began answering questions. Several times Ben asked questions using the word believe. It was then that we learned that when you believe a fact it means that you think you know the fact but you haven’t tested the fact. One of my questions was ‘‘How did your collaborators react toward major misfortunes?’’ The answer: ‘‘They didn’t understand that when you’re working for the Lord’s purposes, you have everything you need.’’ Jonathan asked many questions about the future, and Ben asked questions about all sorts of things, and everyone came out of the meeting with satisfying answers. Bucky and Anne suggested swimming but we had brought no trunks so we ended the day by Dick and me swimming in Bucky’s trunks.
40 It had been a fun day of Learning and Exploring with Bucky.