As you have probably noticed, I have written a lot about Buckminster Fuller and quoted him on many blog pages. Why? Because, it has seemed to me, since the first day I heard him speak at least four decades ago, that he, more than anyone I had ever heard, was:

a complete truth-teller; someone to be trusted.
a person who could see the BIG, BIG picture.
someone who was brilliant enough to handle all the facts.
a doer, not a persuader.
someone who made things, invented things, and provided solutions.
a wise, benevolent, and gentle guide into mankind’s challenging and uncharted future.

I was shocked the other day when a business associate of mine whom I totally respect and on whom I confidently rely for advice, told me that he had never heard of Fuller. A cold shiver went up my spine. “We’re in deeper trouble than we realize,” I thought.

So here I go again. Somebody’s got to do it.

I’d like to share his words:

“This all brings us to a realization of the enormous educational task which must be successfully accomplished right now in a hurry in order to convert man’s spin-dive toward oblivion into an intellectually mastered power pullout into safe and level flight of physical and metaphysical success, whereafter he may turn his Spaceship Earth’s occupancy into a universe exploring advantage. If it comprehends and reacts effectively, humanity will open an entirely new chapter of the experiences and the thoughts and drives thereby stimulated.”

This sense of urgency, this awareness of our nose-dive toward our complete disappearance as a species, is what drives me to boldness.

Today I read on BRAIN PICKINGS, (a fabuloully wonderful website, in case you haven’t discovered it) a few lines that sum up what I am now feeling. They were written about Elizabeth Gilbert, the powerful author of Eat, Pray, Love. 

“The human gift, she says, is the willingness to march forward – – in terror and transcendence, and often alone – – even though we too flinch beneath the shadow of the unknown.”

All I know for sure is that on this day, the very day before my own book is about to be published and sent forth into the world, I am nonetheless still willing to “march forward in terror.”