Opinion: Two Different News Stories, One Message Of Hope

Now and then, two news stories rub up against each other and strike sparks.

This week David Blaine, the magician and illusionist, strapped himself to 52 helium-filled balloons, lifted off into the big, blue skies above Arizona's Great Basin Desert and floated. It was something out of a childhood dream.

"I want to go up and become a tiny dot in the sky," he had told the New York Post.

He called his performance Ascension. He ascended almost five miles, up where the air is thin and cold, before he cut loose from the balloons, plunged through the sky at more than a hundred miles an hour, then pulled the string on a parachute and steered back to earth, where he landed on his feet and said: "Wow. That was awesome."

Mr. Blaine spent years preparing for his performance, which was live streamed on YouTube. He became a certified hot air balloonist and skydiver, making more than 500 jumps.

He told his 9-year old daughter, Dessa, "This is all for you."