The Tragedy of the Flying Priest

I hesitate to make fun of this but make of it what you will: a Brazilian priest, hoping to ‘promote religion’, break a world record and raise money for truck drivers, strapped himself onto a chair tied to 1,000 party balloons for what was to be a 20-hour flight to a nearby town.

This was in April. His body was recently recovered 100km out to sea.

Stories like this always capture my imagination. Like the homemade rocket car driver who wound up fused into a sheer rock wall, they are tragicomic Icarus tales, stories of those brave enough to try something foolishly beautiful. Let’s remember the Kubrick quote about Icarus:

I have never been certain whether the moral of the Icarus story should only be, as is generally accepted, ‘don’t try to fly too high,’ or whether it might also be thought of as ‘forget the wax and feathers, and do a better job on the wings.’

There’s also this video.