IT'S A TIGHTROPE... LIFE BEACONS US TO WALK IT EVERY DAY
“What
is easily available, often, not much valued,” said Kannan, in our Tai Chi
class, this morning. Late, last evening, Girija ma’am, his wife, had sent me a
message:
“Gerry, the movie ‘The
Walk’ is being aired on TV channel Star Movies, now.”
When this movie, “The
Walk’ was released two years ago, I had watched it in the theatre and, on
following Sunday, I had raved about it in the Tai Chi class. Kannan, who is
selective about movies, had watched it with his wife and was highly impressed.
Girija ma’am knew about it, and, so, she had messaged me about the movie being
shown on TV, last evening.
“Sir, did you watch ‘The
Walk’ on TV yesterday?” I asked Kannan, today.
“I was out yesterday,”
Kannan told me, “So, I could watch only the last part… But, what a movie it is!”
Kannan went on to rave
about it for the next ten minutes. “There are so many life lessons in that
movie,” he said, “To me, it is not just about wire-walking… It’s about life!"
I remembered the words
of Philippe Petit in the film:
"Why?" That is the question people ask me most.
Pourquoi? Why? For what? Why do you walk on the wire? Why do you tempt fate?
Why do you risk death. But, I don't think of it this way. I never even say this
word, death. La mort. Yes of okay, I said it once, or maybe three times, just
now... But watch, I *will* not say it again. Instead, I use the opposite word.
Life. For me, to walk on the wire, this is life. C'est la vie.
For those, who have no clue about Philippe Petit, the center
character in the movie, ‘The Walk’, played brilliantly by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), here is the info.: He was a French street (wire-walk)
performer. One day, in his home city, Paris, his eyes caught the tabloid report
about the under-construction Twin Towers (WTC) in New York City. They would be
the world’s tallest towers… and, instantly, the young Philippe dreamed of wire-walking
between them, the moment they were ready.”
The movie is the inspiring story of Philippe carrying out
this stunt one early morning (7/8/1974), in the process, taking the breath away from
police and people below!
So, the movie is about any dreamer… who follows his heart. It’s
about any creative pursuit… It is about taking risks…
Yes, two years ago, in my Blog, I had written about how Philippe,
who dreamed from a distant land, to perform the greatest stunt of his life: to wire-walk between the Twin Towers, the moment they were built… and how
another set of men, years later (9/11/2001), dreamed to bring it down in a stunt, never before
witnessed… I had called them ‘Two Mornings!”
Yes, I remembered my Blog, written two years ago…
Life is much, much bigger than our individual dreams. It
offers us the choice: to dream like a Philippe or to dream like the ‘other guys’…
“Many years
ago, when we had no TV and Internet, we relied on radio to listen to our
favourite songs. I remember, whenever I would hear one of my favourite songs
from some one’s radio, I used to stand still below his building and enjoy that song,”
Kannan said, this morning. He continued, “Now, countless songs and films can be
accessed so easily anytime, anywhere. But, what is easily
available, often, not much valued,”
Life has come to us
easily… the air we breathe, the water we drink… the sunshine, the moonlight…
the trees, grass and the flowers. There
will, always, be two kinds of people in this world… One, like Philippe, will
inspire us to dare death only to live positively, bridging the ‘gap’… And, the ‘other’,
who dare death with a misguided hope to live a dark life!
It’s a tightrope... Life
beacons us to walk it every day!
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Internet
Videos: YouTube
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