Philippe Petit

[mr peabody]

"To me it's so simple that 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 the tightrope."

 

[herbavore]

...and there are so many ways to do this. Every day you come to the edge of something, some capacity you thought you had, that you either turn around from, reinforcing defeat, or you slide your foot forward and take a step through what proves to be no barrier at all. So much of life is lived in our heads, constricted by nothing more than our own thoughts. Everything that I thought I was not capable of, I was not capable of....until I found I was. The question for me is how to tap into my own courage. Usually, I have to be chased there; I would love to be holding the reins more in my own life.

 

[mr peabody]

^This is such a great post, thank you so much. Let me share something with you that I discovered almost by accident.

I used to believe that keeping up with world affairs was a good thing, until I realized it was poisoning me emotionally. So a year ago I just quit, and I haven't seen/heard the news or read a newspaper since. I cannot tell you the difference that's made in my life. It took some getting used to, but man, it's wonderful.

Following the news invites others to lead us, monopolize our emotional bandwidth and subject us to impending dread about a whole series of issues that have nothing to do with us. Over the long term the costs were just too high. Funny thing is I never realized that until I quit.

There is no comfort to be had in staying current with the news. You can't do anything about these things anyway, so why upset yourself? All the time I used to spend worrying is now better spent working to ensure my own peace of mind. I wonder if just trying this could maybe help you in holding the reins more in your own life.

Best wishes now and always.

 

[Foreigner]

The quote is rebellious but also formulaic. Why does it have to be one thing or the other?

Good for you that you're into tight rope walking. I tried skydiving some years ago and it was a great experience. Doesn't mean I need to skydive every day and put myself on the precipice, nor does being challenged mean that you're somehow living a better life. Better for you, maybe.

I think if you follow your heart then you will do the right thing in any given moment, whether it's being lazy and introverted, or outgoing. Once you start making up rules about what a "better life" is, you're already trapped. Life is right here, right now.

 

[Xorkoth]

^This is such a great post, thank you so much. Please let me share something with you that I discovered almost by accident.

I used to believe that keeping up with world affairs was a good thing, until I realized it was poisoning me emotionally. So a year ago I just quit, and I haven't seen/heard the news or read a newspaper since. I cannot tell you the difference that's made in my life. It took some getting used to, but man, it's wonderful.

Following the news invites others to lead us, monopolize our emotional bandwidth and subject us to impending dread about a whole series of issues that have nothing to do with us. Over the long term the costs were just too high. Funny thing is I never realized that until I quit.

I agree with this fully. I did the same thing. I used to spend hours watching the news or reading facebook news-related posts, and it was bringing so much negativity into my life. I was saying to myself, well I have to be informed, I can't just ignore this stuff, that won't do any good. Well, let me tell you, ignoring it has done a lot of good. Getting your "news" from news outlets is dubious at best. You're being fed formulaic info bits designed to get an emotional reaction from you. The news isn't really news anymore. And even if it was, listening to doom and gloom isn't actually accomplishing anything. You're contributing just as much towards helping the situation by listening to news than you are by not listening to news (that is, nothing). But by NOT listening/reading/etc, you're choosing to not inundate yourself with all of the negative shit going on and being reported across the world. This frees you up to pay attention to your local world, your own surroundings. Sure, if you have access to all of the shit going on all over the world, it seems like everything is fucked, because the world is huge and there are over 7 billion people, and something fucked up is happening somewhere all the time. But that's always been the case. It provides a skewed view of how the world really is, because the good stuff is rarely reported on since it doesn't get people worked up nor does it sell headlines. By removing myself from the daily intake of bad news from around the world, I began to notice how many good things are happening around me, and how much of a negative effect all that bad news was truly having on me. It's not that I have my head in the sand, I know that there is a lot of fucked up shit going on. But me obsessing over that does no one any good. However, me being free to feel good and focus on good things does, in fact, do the world some good, because I can spread that feeling around to people I come in contact with. That, and enjoy my life more.

 

[belligerent drunk]

Very good comment Xorkoth, I agree completely and follow the same view.