One of my better decisions, in retrospect, and assuming this is something for which I might take credit (should I chalk everything up to fate?), was to get involved with the network of people friendly to Bucky Fuller's enterprise, including with Bucky himself (we exchanged communications).
I wouldn't stop there though.
Getting mixed up with the Pythonistas was also a positive move, and so was mixing it up with the Centers Network (est), which gave me a boost, not financially so much as psychologically. Going to Princeton and studying philosophy there: also a good move.
However it's up to me to turn all these developments into assets i.e. it's my own powers of transformation that turn shit into gold and gold into shit, both of which substances should be taken as metaphoric in this rendering of deeper alchemy.
Fuller's role as a steersman (cybernetician, trimtabber) involved getting people into networking. Grunch of Giants is all about networks and networking, nowadays more structured thanks to social media, but still not in the mold of the LAWCAP corporation (LAWCAP being Fuller's coin, for "lawyer-capitalism").
Today I got to meet in person with another trimtabber, a member of the TrimTab Book Club no less, as I am. Richard Ramsay was in Portland for an annual conference he's been attending for decades. This time, he got an award from the chair for lifetime achievement, like an Academy Award in that discipline, of suicidology.
Richard was already an admirer of Bucky's, having heard him speak, and early on started phasing in some design science at the meme level e.g. by introducing the tetrahedron as a conceptual diagram. He's well known in his social circles, and appreciated by many, for being quirky and innovative in this way.
When Richard later found out how Fuller himself had been suicidal, and continued weaving that theme into his own autobiographical storytelling, the puzzle pieces fell into place.
I've been apprenticing in the field myself (informally, as someone with a longstanding interest in sociology and anthropology, and without seeking certification or credentials), since getting to know Richard and realizing its up to me to make the most of this opportunity.
Social mores (customs) around suicide vary by ethnicity and continue to morph. Richard has worked for decades with LivingWorks to help shape a consistent and constructive institutional response, at the global level, to this dire need for a social service.
In the fifty states the 988 help line has been inaugurated. Canada hopes to someday follow suit. The idea of a lifeline, a way to restart, is archetypal, embedded in lore, but how does it all work in practice?
We met in the hotel lobby and went out for pizza downtown. Richard had kindly assembled some conference materials (program, decals, even a pen) on my request, so that I might continue to study this emergent subculture. I learned a lot over our couple hours together.
