Log - one year

Tomorrow will be the one year anniversary of my unemployment. It is pretty amazing to really try and take in the past year. I wish that a year of living in this way lent itself to principles that I could share with others (and even myself?) that would help get to a place of security and stability in this structure without having to compromise, but unfortunately, I haven't really figured it out. I've been fortunate in finding people that were willing to exchange material things for the immaterial gifts I have to share. As I have probably recited ad nauseum, much of the inspiration for confronting the world without wanting to compromise my contribution has come from Buckminster Fuller and much of what he wrote in "Critical Path". It is possible that the piece that has stuck with me the most from this momentous book came from the Foreward -

"My reasons for writing this book are fourfold:

(A) Because I am convinced that human knowledge by others of what this book has to say is essential to human survival.

(B) Because of my driving conviction that all of humanity is in peril of extinction if each one of us does not dare, now and henceforth always to tell only the truth, and all the truth, and to do so promptly—right now.

(C) Because I am convinced that humanity’s fitness for continuance in the cosmic scheme no longer depends on the validity of political, religious, economic, or social organizations, which altogether heretofore have been assumed to represent the many.

(D) Because, contrary to (C), I am convinced that human continuance now depends entirely upon:

(1) The intuitive wisdom of each and every individual.
(2) The individual’s comprehensive informedness.
(3) The individual’s integrity of speaking and acting only on the individual’s own within-self-intuited and reasoned initiative.
(4) The individual’s joining action with others, as motivated only by the individually conceived consequences of so doing.
(5) And, the individual’s never-joining action with others, as motivated only by crowd-engendered emotionalism, or by a sense of the crowd’s power to overwhelm, or in fear of holding to the course indicated by one’s own intellectual convictions."

This last point spoke to what I felt was the negative impact of having a "job for the sake of jobs". In his thirties, Bucky decided against "earning a living" and at age eighty wrote that it was often scary, but always rewarding and ultimately led him to the discoveries, designs, and innovations that we acknowledge him for. While design isn't exactly my field, I am beginning to discover my trajectory as one that doesn't need justification. This is a big pill to swallow and I'm still working it down, but one year later, I am still confident that I am moving the right direction.

I'll keep you posted.