Last night we watched the Oscar award winning documentary, “Man on Wire.” The story of Frenchman, Philippe Petit who on August 7, 1974 managed to tightrope the 200′ expanse between the Twin Towers on an illegally rigged wire. But that was most probably the easy part for Philippe. The shear determination, daring, planning, practicing and breaking of the rules to accomplish such a feat was to me the most remarkable thing about his accomplishment.
At the end of the film Philippe summarized what it was all about for him:
“To me, it is so simple that life should be lived on the edge of life. You have to exercise rebellion, to refuse to take yourself to rules, to refuse your own success, to refuse to repeat yourself, to see every day, every year, every idea as a true challenge; and then you are going to live your life on the tightrope.”
How much larger, how much more successful would our lives be if we refused to settle? What if we lived our lives on the edge? Broke more rules. Looked at every moment of every day as a challenge to improve? What if we committed to an impossible goal and poured each minute of every day, every week, month and year to accomplish it?
Then, we are going to live on the tightrope.
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