A friend and colleague, Leslie Bowman, wrote a piece about Bucky Fuller for the Bangor Metro publication in Maine. While she was researching for the Buckminster Fuller story, she asked Randy Fielding if he would contribute his insight into the significance of this man’s life and work. What he said was so compelling, Bowman soon thereafter shared the letter as an editor’s note.

A letter from Randy Fielding…

Bucky Fuller did for me what organized religion couldn’t—he provided a coherent, positive view of the universe—that humans, plants, animals science, art, architecture, love, history, and philosophy are all connected.

My friend Leslie and I went to see Bucky in 1972. Bucky sat on a stool that was too high for him in front of a packed auditorium. With his feet dangling, he looked out at us from his thick glasses and said that he was not special, except in the way that we are all special. With that, all 3,000 of us leaned forward in our seats. Bucky believed in oneness, and so did we.

Bucky helped see the potential to be a part of a creative, globally connected economy—he was my first hero. Since that special day in the auditorium with Leslie and Bucky, I have worked in 28 countries, designing schools that nurture students to feel safe, connected to each other, and confident enough to take charge of their own learning. I find that wherever I go, we are all listening to the same song. From the black market economy of Azerbaijan, the wealth and history of the Swiss Alps, the tropical chaos of Sri Lanka, and the intensely land-connected Inuit in the Arctic Circle, we are all mostly the same—all connected.

Bucky also championed the concept of synergy. Leslie and I decided that peanut butter and jelly was a perfect illustration of synergy. As an individual food, on a scale of one to ten, peanut butter is about a four, and jelly about a two, but together, they are ten! The sum is greater than the parts. All together now, we can learn, love, trade, share and continuously reinvent our world. I know a little and you know a little and together we know a lot! Thanks forever Bucky!

Read Bowman’s original article Bucky’s World (pdf)