Hello all and welcome to our continuing series of author interviews.
Today’s guest is THE GIRL FROM SPACESHIP EARTH author Patricia Ravasio.
Pat met The Buckster in her 20s and the experience changed her life forever. THE GIRL FROM SPACESHIP EARTH, the true story of the practical utopian ideas and lost wisdom of American visionary and realist R. Buckminster Fuller, speaks to humanity’s ability to be something better. Her message is “We need to understand our potential as a species” and what she’s learning is how to save the planet and your sanity at the same time.
I’d like everyone to stand up and give Patricia Ravasio a big round of applause for taking part in our exciting adventure.
Pat Ravasio’s Bio
Patricia is a former award winning radio journalist, advertising copywriter, and community activist. Her writing credentials include a decade long weekly community column and occasional guest opinion pieces in her local newspapers, and an essay in Seventeen. She was named Citizen of the Year by Corte Madera, California, for her volunteer work in parks and beautification.
Pat and I talked about marching with cool men, Buckminster Fuller (duh!), landing on the moon, how Bucky Fuller’s World Games became a runner up to Woodstock, feeling guilty about being successful, marathon interview sessions, getting a new engine in her car, 9/11, our evolution as a species, shifting the way we think, the danger of specious notions, fossil fuels, Jimmy Carter versus Ronald Reagan, what’s going on in the world, writing a long, personal essay, Bucky’s prediction that America will fail and why that’s not necessarily a bad thing, America as a First-Strike nation, Bill McKibben and more.
You can find links to Pat’s book on the right or at the bottom of this post (depending on your device). You’ll also find links to Pat’s sites underneath the video.
The Interview
Patricia Ravasio’s Links
Pat’s Buckminster Fuller site and BuckyIdeas.com
Pat’s website
Pat on Amazon
Follow and friend Pat on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
Pat also recommends:
CraigsList to find self-publishing help
Lisa Poisso for editing
Ruth Schwartz, book midwife
Kit Foster for bookcover design
An excerpt from Pat Ravasio’s BuckyIdeas.com
When it comes to taking charge of a listing Spaceship Earth, it has become clear that women must now step up and lead. It’s not just about gender equality anymore, but about taking over a sinking ship in the nick of time.
The women of Spaceship Earth must now wake up and heed their own innate but lost wisdom about how to create a more just and sustainable planet. The late genius and futurist, R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) wrote about the superiority of a feminine paradigm of leadership. His ideas first came to light in 1968 in an essay published in McCall’s Magazine entitled “Why Women Will Rule the World.” It is an eye opener the world needs now.
Bucky explained that if women were in charge, the world would become free of the need to labor for a daily energy supply, since clean renewable energy would be a reality. We have known for some time that freeing ourselves of our dependence on fossil fuels is the pivotal challenge of the 21st century. To get there, woman — and those who think like women — must insist that our government begin to actually represent the will of the people, which is not currently the case. Nearly 70% of Americans want action on climate change. Over 80% want serious gun control. Over 80% want innocent child immigrants of DACA protected. Yet none of these actions are coming anytime soon, and nor will they, unless and until women step up and speak out.
Fuller suggested that “governance should become nurturance”, that weaponry should be replaced by “livingry”, and that we intentionally, as a United Space Planet People, set about upon a new humanitarian course. Conservatives often call this socialism or communism, but it is not an old notion at all. It is something new. Some call it humanism. Or naturism. By any name this emerging global trend is about people of all races and religions coming together to cooperate, to build community, to have compassion and empathy for one another, and to realign with nature.
Abundantly advanced technology and knowledge has brought us to the point where it no longer needs to be “us versus them.” There is enough for all, but if only we get together and set out to prove it. Only by actively working toward a higher quality of life for 100% of humanity, without harm to the environment, can we expect to accomplish it.
Women must bring their courage, their compassion, and cooperative spirit to the forefront. We must peak out. Take leadership roles. Be brave. Stop thinking there is nothing we can do. The individual is the most powerful entity on the planet, because only individuals have complete freedom to say and act as they wish.
We must persist, never forgetting that big oil deliberately continues to thwart development of clean energy even though they know the harm they are doing. As Bucky laid it all out clearly in 1982, and spelled out in my book The Girl from Spaceship Earth, executives from this industry are responsible for the “the greatest crime ever committed against humanity.”
We must delegitimize the fossil fools, as Bucky called them, just as we finally found the courage to do to big tobacco. Time is of the essence. Big oil is even more ferociously determined than tobacco was and is killing us just as carelessly.
Even if global warming wasn’t a real thing, there are ample reasons for transitioning to clean energy now. Two thirds of what’s in the ground must stay there. These reserves, Bucky said, should be regarded as “nature’s energy savings account” to be preserved for future planetary emergencies.
We must demand our government immediately scale up the “readily tappable cosmic energies of sun, wind and wave power” and other emerging energy technologies. Free energy will set humanity free. Common sense leadership from women (and people who think like them) will keep us there. Saving the world is women’s work.
Read Bucky’s 1968 McCall’s article. It will set your mind to dancing with all the exciting possibilities for the human race. And please share Buckyideas.
Full article by Buckminster Fuller courtesy of Brent Reitzel, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.
Happy Birthday to R. Buckminster Fuller, 123 years young tomorrow (12 July)