Shock and Awe

I recently finished reading Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann.  Some of the book is centered around the tight rope walker, Philippe Petit, that "danced" across the world trade center towers for 40 minutes on August 7, 1974. I can't believe I had never heard about this before. The book tells stories of different characters and describes their reactions and interpretations of this event. It was so interesting to me how everyone experienced it differently. For example one character is a mother who just lost her son in the Vietnam war so she is angered and outraged that someone could be so careless with their life. Some characters thought it was an ultimate act of defiance. Some people thought it was an insane person possibly after fame and fortune. I think the book is really about how our past experiences define us, our thoughts, ideas, and interpretations. I am sure today people's reactions are influenced by the 9/11 attacks. The book was incredibly well written and gave profound insight into the human condition.

I still had a lot of questions about Philippe Petit and how anyone could go about accomplishing such an impossible task so I watched the most recent documentary called Man on a Wire. He is quite an eccentric and energetic artist. When he was telling the story I felt like I was reading a book. He includes all the small details that really bring a story to life. It took him six years to plan and there was an unbelievable amount of obstacles such as breaking into both towers simultaneously, how to run the wire across, etc. Every interview I saw, the witnesses broke down in tears when describing it. It was such a powerful and overwhelming event. Philippe didn't just walk across the rope, he ran, jumped, danced, even laid down on the wire. It is a pretty amazing story. Philippe gave no reason why he did it, to him it was art. He got the idea when he was 17 while reading a newspaper article about the world trade center towers being built, he did not rest until he accomplished his dream.

In the documentary, they ask him if he was afraid of death, his response was "If I die, what a beautiful death. To die in the exercise of your passion."

"The world is run by brutal men and the surest proof is their armies. If they ask you to stand still, you should dance. If they ask you to burn the flag, wave it. If they ask you to murder, re-create." -Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin

 “She was tired of everyone wanting to go to heaven, nobody wanting to die. The only thing worth grieving over, she said, was that sometimes there was more beauty in this life than the world could bear.” -Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin

“He might have been naive, but he didn't care; he said he's rather die with his heart on his sleeve than end up another cynic.”  -Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin

“Literature can remind us that not all life is already written down: there are still so many stories to be told.” -Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin