“A clever tool in the arsenal
to destroy fear: if a nightmare
taps you on the shoulder, do
not turn around immediately
expecting to be scared. Pause
and expect more, exaggerate.
Be ready to be very afraid, to
scream in terror. The more
delirious your expectation,
the safer you will be when you
see that reality is much less
horrifying than what you had
envisioned. Now turn around.
See? It was not that bad—and
you’re already smiling.”
—PHILIPPE PETIT The French daredevil made headlines
on Aug. 7, 1974, when he walked a tightrope between
the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York.
The illegal stunt (he was arrested when he finished) took
place on a 131-foot cable wire about 1,350 feet above
the ground as Petit walked back and forth between the
iconic skyscrapers. Petit performed other stunts in his
career (including a walk between the two towers of Notre
Dame Cathedral in Paris) and continues to do smaller
events today at age 70. He wrote about this secret to
fight off elevated (pun intended) stress in the literary
magazine Lapham’s Quarterly.