Philippe Petit on a cable between the WTC towers; ca. 1974

Life should be lived on the edge of life; you have to exercise rebellion:

to refuse to taper 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 a tightrope.

I really really enjoyed the documentary  Man on Wire from a historical aspect; but Petit was a bit of an ass. In the end, he seemed like he just sort of abandoned his friends once he got recognition. His one buddy got banned for life from the US and he didn’t seem to care, and as soon as he got released rather than go visit his girlfriend he shacked up in a hotel with some random girl for a couple of days. Ugh!

*On 9/11/2003, Petit wrote the most poignant eulogy for the Twin Towers. It draws upon a lesson he learned in coping with the death of his young daughter in the 1990s.

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May 30, 2014 | Categories: American History, Excuse My Beauty, History, Human History, Images of History, Photography, Stunt Queens, The Drama Of It All, Weird | Tags: Asshole, French, Historical photography, Man on Wire, odd, Philippe Petit, Photo, photograph, Strange, Stunt, Tightrope, Weird, World Trade Center | 8 Comments