I have some very unconventional heroes. One is the fellow who tied numerous balloons to an armchair and floated upward, into the Los Angeles Airport airspace. George Plimpton, a literary journalist, wrote about him – actually, he tried to write his story, but the fellow said no, he wanted to write about it himself. This man committed suicide, and then Plimpton wrote about him.

Another hero of mine is Phillipe Petit who in the 70s walked on a tightrope between the two twin towers. He later was appointed artist in residence at St. John of the Divine Church. 50 years later, in 2024, he did a similar tightrope walk at St John’s. Had I known that he was going to do this, I would have gone and seen him perform. But imagine it, 50 years later, still being spry enough to be a tightrope walker.

Both of these men are my heroes because they did something very unconventional, although Phillipe is more of a hero because he trained with single minded intensity of focus to do what he did. It didn’t take much forethought, tying the helium balloons to the lawn chair.

I would tie balloons to an armchair and set myself free. I might experiment and tie two balloons on at a time so as to maintain my balance and keep from going too high.

I would use a six pack or two of beer as a ballast.

I’m actually surprised that no one else (to my knowledge) has since attempted to do this. I would take a pin, and if I drifted too high, and one by one pop the balloons. No brainers are such fun.

It is interesting that one who has a deep routed fear of flying would even consider this.

I have no desire to scuba dive. Another hero, now that I think of it, is Diane Nyad who at age 64 swam from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida. Her epic account has not been authenticated, but shit, she did it. And she went on to become a sportscaster.

Nyad is a hero in my estimation because she did not give up, and in fact, she attempted to swim the 111 mile distance five, count ‘em, five, times.

Another hero: Granny D. Who in her 90s walked cross country, promoting campaign reform. She was a woman who was ahead of her time.

There are many, many others. Undoubtedly, I will wake up tonight and many more will come to mind.

I had always hoped to become someone’s hero, but this is never going to come to be. Had I continued on my first cross country bicycle trip and gone around the world, I might have acquired hero status. The problem was that at the conclusion of my trip, I was torn. I really did hope to have a career as a journalist.

Eh, enough. I don’t know how many chances we are given to figure out what it is that we want to do with our lives, and then do it. No one knows for sure. You’d think that having thumbs everything would be easy. But still, accomplishing anything has its difficulties.

Next: 266. 10/3/25: Chronic Pain