Inspiration Binders

Photo courtesy See Jane Work.

One of my favorite ways to spend a slow afternoon is poring through some of the multitude of magazines that seem to gather around my house. I currently subscribe to... hmmm, let me count... Glamour, Lucky, Arizona Highways, Writer's Digest, W, House Beautiful and Photo Pro, and pick up many others in airports around the country during my travels. Favorites include Coastal Living, Yoga Journal, Better Homes and Gardens and Vanity Fair (mostly for the portraits). I also have a nice size backlog of copies of The New Yorker from when I subscribed a few years back, and Mac World, which Apple automatically subscribes you to whenever you buy a new computer (and we've bought more than our share over the last five years).

You can imagine the stack that piles up after a couple of months. That simply won't do when you're living in a little house like we do, with a husband who despises clutter. But tossing them out, when they contain so much good stuff, isn't an option to me.

Enter the inspiration binder. I tear out anything that grabs me or that I want to emulate: paintings, drawings, portraits, fashion photography - any great artwork or things that I think I could make into great artwork. Anything that gets me going. Anything I think will get my creative juices flowing on days when I need a little, well, inspiration. All these pages are places in plastic sleeves and hung in the pretty binder, which sits neatly on my office shelve (right next to the binders that hold my tax receipts).

Inspiration can't be had from a plain old boring binder. Use the prettiest ones you can find (mine are from Greenroom and can be bought at Target). They should be a please to handle, a pleasure to use, and a pleasure to see on your shelf. If you have a hard time finding something that you love, decorate your own with old wallpapers scraps, fabric, etc. Make the first page something you love to look at over and over again - mine is part of an old article on Courtney Love, showing snippets of her diary and this fantastic snapshot of Kurt Cobain holding a kitten up to a toddler Frances Bean in her playpen.

After I've torn out the pages I want to save, then and only then do the magazines head to the recycling bin. You could also call up you local elementary school or after school center and see if they could use them for art projects. (Just make sure the subject matter is age-appropriate. 7-year-olds don't need to be reading Cosmo's latest article on Your Best Orgasm Now. But it's a good article, you should read it.)

Daring

Image copyright Alan Welner/AP Images.

Does this photo scare the crap out of you or what? Imagine yourself up there on that wire, stretched between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, over 1300 feet high. Higher than the Empire State Building in the background. No net. Unbelievable winds. Quite the act of daring.

But Philippe Petit was not a man who simply woke up one day and said to himself, "I am going to be very daring and walk a tightrope between the Twin Towers today." That sort of daring is more colloquially referred to as "a death wish." Petit prepared for his walk for over six years, starting long before the buildings were completed. He spent years sneaking into the buildings, sometimes disguised as a construction worker, to gain information on security, the layout of the roof and various other design and safety details. Meanwhile, he was becoming well-known for his other high-wire stunts, including crossing the towers of Notre Dame Cathedral in France and the towers of Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia.

His daring took years of preparation.

In the end, Petit (along with a team of secret helpers) shot his wire across the chasm with a bow and arrow and danced upon it for nearly 45 minutes, at one point laying on the wire and having a conversation with a bird above him. He only came down when it began to rain.

Although he was arrested, all charges were dropped when it became obvious his stunt was bringing good publicity to the once-maligned towers.

When asked why he did something so wildly dangerous, Petit said, "When I see three oranges, I juggle; when I see two towers, I walk."

Every day we hear people -- including ourselves -- say they wish they could do something, but it's too much of a risk. Quitting your job and starting your own business, auditioning for that perfect role but for the rejection, running that marathon, submitting that book proposal, kissing him. Too risky, we say.

Next time you catch yourself thinking "Too risky," remember Philippe Petit. Prepare, then dare.

(If you'd like to learn more about Philippe Petit, check out the Academy Award-winning documentary "Man on Wire.")