Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Genius or Madness?

Just watched a fascinating 2008 Oscar-winning documentary called Man on Wire based on Phillipe Pitit's book To Reach the Clouds. Phillipe has a magnetic and intense personality is part of the driving success of his quest to walk a tight rope across the World Trade Centre twin towers in 1974.

At the closing of the documentary, Phillipe gave a sublime summary of his life philosophy:

"To me life is simple - Life should be lived on the edge. You have to exercise rebellion. To refuse to taper yourself to rules, refuse your own success, to refuse to repeat yourself. Every day, every year as a true challenge, and then you are going to live on the tight rope."

The 59 year old Frenchman is now planning a series of high-wire walks this autumn around the United States.