When power and authority partner with fear as their source, then it is only fear masquerading as power and authority

When I was just 26 years old, I was introduced for the first time to the work of R.Buckminster Fuller.

At age 32, as Bucky was attempting suicide for what he considered a failed life (kicked out of Harvard several times, failed multiple times at business, lost his family and friends’ money, watched his young daughter die…yep…you might consider your life a failure), he heard his inner voice saying…”It is not your life to choose to die.”

And so, with nothing to lose…and nothing to lose is a glorious place to be…even though many may think it not..no money to lose, no reputation to lose, no status to lose…nothing to be shamed over any more…Bucky made a decision to commit his life to everything that was not the small egoic self…that part of us that seeks fame, recognition, glory, status, approval…that part of us that can be attacked, ridiculed, shamed, betrayed, abandoned.

…to do instead what was spontaneously arousable from within for the highest good for the highest number of people…..

His body of work is a testament to this commitment….

We are brought up in a world that has walls and rules, authority perpetuated on fear…that seeks with intent to have us believe that our voice doesn’t matter…that what one man or woman can do is of no consequence.

This phenomenon even has a name… it is called learned helplessness.

We are taught that we are helpless. That might rules. That the person in uniform, or with the degree, or who sits at the head of the table…has something over us. Power. Authority.

When power and authority partner with fear as their source, then it is only fear masquerading as power and authority

Real power and real authority have no relationship with fear. Rather, they are entwined with humility.

We know the difference intuitively. We know when we meet someone who walks in their own power and authorship. Who has no need of pretence, artifice, or status.

We know those people who need the props, the retinue, the smoke and mirrors…the cashed up wallet, bravado and the biggest car/table/room.

Yet the truth is, we have been taught to cower to the false and not see the real. And in our cowering, lose our voice, our courage, and our own power and authority…the aspect of self that says “Yes, you can…make a difference.”

The world needs your voice now. No worries if your voice is shaky, if your words are far from articulate…if you stumble over sentences too long…for it is not the words…but the place that they arise from.

John Denver wrote a song for Bucky…here are some of the lyrics…

It’s hard to tell the truth when no one wants to listen
When no one really cares what’s going on
And it’s hard to stand alone when you need someone beside you
Your spirit, your faith must be strong

What one man can do is dream, what one man can do is love
What one man can do is change the world and make it young again
Here you see what one man can do

As shaded as his eyes might be, that’s how bright his mind is
That’s how strong his love for you and me
A friend to all the universe, grandfather of the future
Everything that I would like to be