Day 219 – High

Song of the Day: Real Thing – tUnE-yArDs

Tune-Yards – different.

I’ve often wondered what it must be like to be the heir to a family business. I guess it depends on the business to a certain extent, but then, if it’s a highly successful business, there’s the double pressure of 1) feeling obliged to pursue a career someone else has determined for you and 2) not being the one to blow the family fortune. But imagine growing up to find the family business is tightrope walking! And you’re expected to go into it.

It’s good to have some news that doesn’t involve politics, money or murder, and today’s story about American tightrope walker Nik Wallenda walking between skyscrapers in Chicago is amazing. There’s some gulp-worthy footage here, which makes my heart jump just looking at it. I’ve got such a phobia for heights, I actually get annoyed with people who do stuff like this and climb the outside of buildings etc, but they fascinate me too.

Apparently Nik Wallenda’s mum did a tightrope walk while she was six-months pregnant with him! And his grandad died falling in a tightrope accident in Puerto Rico at the age of 72. So, as family businesses go, it’s a mixed blessing to say the least. But what a moment when he reaches the other side. For me anyway. I do wonder whether people like Nik actually appreciate solid ground in the same way I do. Not that the roof of a tower block is solid ground. That could wobble and tip you off at any moment.

If you like tightrope walkers, read Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. It’s the only book that’s ever given me vertigo.