The High Wire Act of Dreaming

In literature and in cinema, there are those rare and special moments when we connect so deeply with the media that we experience the moment as viscerally as we do moments of our own lives. That is the greatest magic art of art, to introduce splices of someone else’s dream into our own existence. And when we look back on those shared moments, we remember them the same as moments from that daytime dream we call our real lives.

For me, no cinematic moment better expresses the magic of art than the moment in “Man on Wire” when Philippe Petit stepped out onto the high wire strung between the tops of the World Trade Center and seared an image into the collective human imagination forever. I actually cried the first time I saw it, privileged to witness this incredible feat, as a human being took the most insane of dreams and made it a reality.

At sixteen years old, Frenchman Philippe Petit decided to become a tightrope walker. Sometime later, he had a dream of two towers between which he was destined to walk. To add to the mystical feel of the scenario, the towers were not yet even built. He had no idea where they would be, or if they ever would be. He only knew he saw them in his dream.

Then came the day that he saw a story in the newspaper detailing the construction of the World Trade Center buildings in New York City. He knew at once that they were the towers from his dream. He also knew that there was an ocean separating him from those towers, and that no one involved with their construction would be crazy enough to let him walk a wire between them. Yet, he had seen his destiny, and set out to make it a reality, no matter what stood in his way.

As history knows, Petit eventually succeeded. It took great effort, great expense, and great risk to his life, but he did it.

To me, there is no moment in literary or cinematic history that has moved me more than the moment when Petit stepped out onto that wire in the documentary “Man on Wire.” I’m not a man prone to tears but I actually wept at the sight. There I was, very early in my journey to realize my own dream of being a professional novelist. A big part of me thought I would never accomplish that aspiration. A big part of me thought it was impossible. And there was Philippe Petit, who traveled across an ocean to walk a wire 1,350 ft in the air. I cried and I understood that not only could I achieve my dream, but I had no right not to. There is nothing in this life more inspirational than someone making their dream a reality. It is not only the greatest gift we can give ourselves, but the greatest gift we can give the world.

With perseverance, faith, and a touch of madness, we can make anything happen. There are no excuses. Perhaps we won’t all reach the ultimate end of our ambitions, but it’s the trying that is the high wire act, the thing that can move other people to tears of inspiration.

I love the moment in “Man on Wire” when Petit steps out onto that wire as dearly as I love moments of my own life. It inspires me to push farther, to work harder, to move closer to achieving my own dream. Thank you Philippe Petit for the life that you lived, and thank you for the moment. 1974, so long ago, yet still making grown men weep.

Petit gave a moving, humorous, and informative instruction on his life and his methods at TED. The video is below.