A Beautiful Crime

Art exists in many forms – Van Gogh found it in painting, Frank Lloyd Wright found it in architecture, and Michael Jackson found it in dancing and singing, etc. And for Philippe Petit, he once found it in crime.

I found this article about Philippe Petit, a famous French tightrope walker, and his history of crossing between the twin towers of World Trade Center on a wire back in 1974. The crossing is not only made by Philip, but by the friends of Philip and those who were entertained by such a dangerous idea. At first I thought I was watching a group of professional criminals trying to destroy the towers. They spent several years of efforts to "premeditate" the crime together - they even had an insider in one of the extremely secured towers. However, I later discovered that this "artistic crime of the century" - named by Time Magazine - is neither a crime nor a serious villainy futile. In fact, it is simply a pursuit of the passion and happiness. Perhaps the story of Philip is an extreme example of having a passion they can die for, but I think we should learn the attitude of Philip: If you have a passion, it must be pursued at any price, if you fail or even die because of the pursuit, it is a beautiful failure.

Philippe Petit's interesting quotations:
- "My crime is purely artistic. If I have to ask for permission to do it and I am refused, I will still do it anyway. To me, this is obvious: there is no need to ask for permission when we want to accomplish something beautiful. It just needs to be done."

- "Being a tightrope walker, it is not a profession but a way of life. Crossing on a wire is a metaphor for life: there is a beginning, an end, progression, and if you make a wrong step, you die."

- "To me, it seems so simple that life should be lived on the wire, meaning to see every day, every year, every idea as a real challenge."