While I’ve long associated R. “Bucky” Buckminster Fuller with the geodesic dome and had some vague awareness of his status as something of a visionary, I’d not really paid a great deal of attention to his actual work. Recently, several of his quotes have been making the rounds on Facebook and have piqued my interest to the extent of wanting to learn a great deal more about his work and his thoughts.
This quote:
Never forget that you are one of a kind. Never forget that if there weren’t any need for you in all your uniqueness to be on this earth, you wouldn’t be here in the first place. And never forget, no matter how overwhelming life’s challenges and problems seem to be, that one person can make a difference in the world. In fact, it is always because of one person that all the changes that matter in the world come about. So be that one person.
expresses one of those general truths many of us tend to dismiss with a shrug of denial and/or contempt. Did “Bucky” make a difference in this world? A cursory review of his life at the Wikipedia entry linked above would answer that query in the affirmative. And, more telling is thirty years after his passing, his work is being quoted and shared with millions via the internet and social media. I think it’s time I fully embraced Bucky’s command to “…be that one person.”