Geodesic Dome

“Don’t fight forces, use them.” A friend sent me this quote by Buckminster Fuller recently. It brought back many memories. A long time friend had introduced me to the writings of Buckminster Fuller back in the early seventies. My friend had some kind of contact with Buckminster Fuller and shared with me some of the philosophies and inventions Fuller had come up with in asking the question throughout his life: “Does humanity have a chance to survive lastingly and successfully on planet Earth, and if so, how?” One of his ideas that he developed and popularized was the geodesic dome. More recently I was at the Discovery World children’s musuem in Milwaukee where my grandson was fascinated by The Dymaxion map created by Fuller. This map “was designed to show Earth’s continents with minimum distortion when projected or printed on a flat surface.” Right in middle of this map, which folds out, is the Great Lakes, the largest body of fresh water in the world.

But besides memories, the Fuller quote reminds me of the garden and nonviolence. The garden does not fight forces of nature, wind, water and sun, but uses them as best it can. Martin Luther King Jr., in his letter from the Birmingham jail, talks about how “disciplined nonviolence totally confused the rulers of the South.” When people did not fight the forces of clubs, dogs and guns used against them “they found the world was watching, and then the power of nonviolent protest became manifest.”

The power of not fighting forces but using them was also evident in the Pilgrimage of Peace to India. Followers of Gandhi do not fight forces around them, in their farms or lifestyles, but use them to grow and flourish. It is notable that this is the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s visit to India to learn from the followers of Gandhi. A fellow pilgrim sent me an article on Martin Luther King’s Tour of India in 1959.

Other ways to say “Don’t fight forces, use them” is the common saying of “Go with the flow”, the song “Peace is flowing like a river” or “All is Well.”

Today I talked with someone who was trying to will his way out of a bad situation. I felt like saying one of these phrases but than turned to myself and silently said: “Don’t fight the forces, use them.”

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