Every morning my first thought is…

The Mirror
Every morning my first thought is…
2004-01-16 0:00

“My God! He’s still up there.” David Blaine is now halfway through his ordeal, and the agony is beginning to tell…

on his supporters on the ground. I am sometimes terrified to awake and think of my friend, alone, nearly naked and racked with hunger.

I switch on the TV immediately, and every morning I am relieved and calmed to see how serenely he is enduring his fast. As he predicted, David is spending long stretches of time in meditation, allowing his mind to travel along the Thames and into the teeming city, or out to sea.

His view takes in the most historic stretch of water in the world, with the Tower of London before him and Traitor’s Gate at its base, where the king’s most dangerous enemies once were brought by river.

His team in America appear confident to me, with a growing sense of certainty that David will confound his critics and achieve his goal. There is a feeling around the camp that positive thinking has won through. The sneers and jibes of early days have been stifled by a burgeoning sense of awe and respect among onlookers.

The person who has risen foremost in my prayers is David’s girlfriend, Manon von Gerkan. I feel she was assailed by a sense of powerlessness in the early days of the trial. It is a terrible thing to see someone you love suffer and to know there is nothing you can do to help. But I believe she and David have found a mental wavelength which allows them to communicate telepathically, and they are both comforted by these mind messages. When he emerges, their re lationship will be stronger than ever.