Brave Blondin

Firstly, please accept apologies for the rogue posting that popped up on this site on Tuesday. Technical difficulties! 

Blondin (1824-1897) - mentioned in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 199 - is a fascinating character. Real name: Jean Francois Gravelet.

French-born Blondin's passion for rope-walking began as a child 'when a troupe of acrobats pitched their tent near his home at St. Omer' (Mary Baker Eddy Mentioned Them, p. 36). I wonder what his mother thought as he 'practiced crawling out on branches...catch[ing] hold of the branch above and swing[ing] himself up' (ibid)! 

In fact, by the time 'he was five, his parents placed him in the École de Gymnase in Lyons...[and soon]...he appeared as Little Wonder' (p. 37).

I especially enjoyed reading that 'In 1851 he came with a French company of equestrian and acrobatic performers to the United States. On the voyage a man was washed overboard. At once Blondin jumped in and rescued him' (ibid) and that 'While performing, he never looked down, but always straight ahead' (ibid).

The internet has many many references to Blondin - even some videos of his crossing the Niagara Falls. This entry from History Today is interesting: 'Blondin's first crossing of the Niagara Falls, in 1859, was the most famous feat in a life packed with them and like all the others was painstakingly prepared, ...'

A writer to the Christian Science Sentinel of April 14, 1962, mentions Blondin in his article regarding self-discipline. Israel Pickens writes, in part:

'The overcoming of fear and of other propensities of mortal mind does not require the use of willpower. There have been instances when some great achievement was accomplished simply through the expression of such qualities as stability, poise, or fearlessness or through practicing the art of self-discipline, which is not the same as willpower.

'An example of this is seen in the experience of Charles Blondin, who walked on a tightrope above the roaring torrents of Niagara Falls. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health, p.199), "Had Blondin believed it impossible to walk the rope over Niagara's abyss of waters, he could never have done it." And she adds, "His fear must have disappeared before his power of putting resolve into action could appear." Blondin had practiced self-discipline, which enabled him not only to overcome completely the fear of falling but to balance himself.

'Such self-discipline expressed in the overcoming of the fear of falling is far less significant, however, than is that of the self-discipline in learning that God governs our real selves, that man is His care and responsibility.'

While we may never have the ambition or the staying power to conquer the art of tight-rope walking, yet we each have the self-discipline necessary to hone and expand our individual talents, and so to glorify our heavenly Parent.

Julie Swannell