Personal Stuff
Walking on Fire
[LinkedIn
post I published in June 2020 during the pandemic, while
starting up my Honeycomb
Dome sales venture]
Would
you deliberately walk on fire? Can you imagine yourself
walking barefoot across a bed of coals
glowing at 500ºC? I’ve done just that (see me in the red
shirt below) - but was it a religious rite, motivational
seminar or science experiment?
For me it felt like a science experiment. Yet I found it VERY empowering.
I was manager of the Glasgow Planetarium (you can see the dome behind me) and the company we booked for the charity fundraiser emphasised the scientific aspect of walking on fire and not the more popular woo-woo nonsense.
So, if it was carefully explained to you why skin doesn't burn over short fire walks of 3 to 4 meters, would you attempt it?
Fire walking is popular because it helps us realise many of our beliefs are self-limiting ie.
🔥 if you believe the coal will burn you, you will never walk on fire
For me it felt like a science experiment. Yet I found it VERY empowering.
I was manager of the Glasgow Planetarium (you can see the dome behind me) and the company we booked for the charity fundraiser emphasised the scientific aspect of walking on fire and not the more popular woo-woo nonsense.
So, if it was carefully explained to you why skin doesn't burn over short fire walks of 3 to 4 meters, would you attempt it?
Fire walking is popular because it helps us realise many of our beliefs are self-limiting ie.
🔥 if you believe the coal will burn you, you will never walk on fire
🔥
if you believe
it’s necessary to conform to society’s expectations, you’ll
never do anything positively disruptive with your life
🔥
if I believe
I can only earn a living visiting
schools, I won’t succeed selling social distancing domes to
restaurants during pandemics.
I’d LOVE to know:
➤ have you walked on fire?
➤ would you like to walk on fire?
➤ have you ever turned down an opportunity to walk on fire?
An Unexpected Honour
On 20 October 2018 a colleague and I delivered a double dome immersive experience at the Royal Academy of Arts (London), for an evening event called Cosmic Ocean.
The Royal Academy of Arts is based in Burlington House, Piccadilly - which is also the home of the Linnean Society (established 1788), a learned society dedicated to the study of natural history and taxonomy.
Our domes were set up in the Reynolds Room, where, on 1st July 1858, research papers by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace were presented, and the world first heard about the origin of species by natural selection.
When I saw the commemorative panel in the room I couldn't believe my eyes (and my luck!), and photographed it with one of my projection boxes in front of it.
Interestingly, botanist and explorer Joseph Dalton Hooker (who was present when the papers were delivered) wrote that after the presentation 'the room was awestruck and completely silent, with a lack of discussion about the papers, possibly due to the subject being too novel and ominous'.
Even more interesting, the president of the Linnean Society at the time clearly had no idea what momentous changes this discovery would bring, writing in his annual review: "The year which has passed ... has not, indeed, been marked by any of those striking discoveries which at once revolutionise, so to speak, the department of science on which they bear."
How astounding that visionary, brilliant people are so often not appreciated by those around them at the time.
A Prestigious Lifeless Performance
On the evening of 5th November 2009, I suffered a 'fatal heart attack' and a public 'autopsy' was performed on me in the Royal Institution Lecture Theatre (London) - the prestigious auditorium where Michael Faraday first demonstrated electromagnetism (1831) and where the annual Christmas Lectures have been held since 1825.
By now I had become quite good at lying perfectly still for an hour or more (while having my body drawn on with coloured markers). Ruth had launched the very first National Pathology Week the year before, and so I'd experienced a number of 'autopsies' at the hands of various pathologists around the country before this particular event.
The secret to lying perfectly still is to 'zone out' and
either focus intently on the lecture, or something else
altogether (while keeping away from certain topics of course).
The most challenging part is ignoring dozens of imaginary (and
occasionally not-so-imaginary) itches and prickles that clamber
for attention.
A Single Revolution
[Blog post
I published at 21:30 on Saturday 30th December 2000, in
Armagh, Northern Ireland]
Exactly one year ago, almost at this precise moment, the
wheels of my Virgin Atlantic flight lifted off South
African soil.
When that moment came, and I felt the thud of the undercarriage beneath me, I smiled and breathed a sigh of relief: I knew I had succeeded in finally leaving that unfortunate, deteriorating country - safe and in one piece.
Yet I also knew that a tremendous challenge lay before me. All on my own, I was entering a new, unfamiliar environment. A wintry world where I spoke funny and felt awkward and uncomfortable.
The first two weeks were the worst. The very first entry in my 2000 diary reads: "Went to bed in a bit of a panic...asking myself 'what have you done to your life?'".
Traveling to and from work on a bicycle in the middle of winter during my first three months in the UK was no joke either. Yet I stuck it out, marking days off my calendar until things improved.
I'm really glad I didn't throw in the towel.
And tonight, sitting in my comfortable warm room, with the snow lying thick outside, I can't believe that my diary once again reads 30th December ... and that Africa is far away."
My precious one-way ticket out:
When that moment came, and I felt the thud of the undercarriage beneath me, I smiled and breathed a sigh of relief: I knew I had succeeded in finally leaving that unfortunate, deteriorating country - safe and in one piece.
Yet I also knew that a tremendous challenge lay before me. All on my own, I was entering a new, unfamiliar environment. A wintry world where I spoke funny and felt awkward and uncomfortable.
The first two weeks were the worst. The very first entry in my 2000 diary reads: "Went to bed in a bit of a panic...asking myself 'what have you done to your life?'".
Traveling to and from work on a bicycle in the middle of winter during my first three months in the UK was no joke either. Yet I stuck it out, marking days off my calendar until things improved.
I'm really glad I didn't throw in the towel.
And tonight, sitting in my comfortable warm room, with the snow lying thick outside, I can't believe that my diary once again reads 30th December ... and that Africa is far away."
My precious one-way ticket out:
Do I miss South Africa?
The security of quality health care : when I look at my ageing parents and notice how ill-health is creeping up on them, I no longer worry about where we'll find the money to take them to a private hospital (to avoid the pressing thousands of South Africans queuing at state hospitals).
No bugs : when I switch on the kitchen light, I no longer see cockroaches scurrying for cover (vermin that are always there, despite your best efforts to keep a clean home).
No danger : when I look out my bedroom window at night, I no longer see lurking people and threatening shadows in the dark. There is absolutely no-one around - only the occasional taxi that serves as transport for the neighbour across the way.
The security of quality health care : when I look at my ageing parents and notice how ill-health is creeping up on them, I no longer worry about where we'll find the money to take them to a private hospital (to avoid the pressing thousands of South Africans queuing at state hospitals).
No bugs : when I switch on the kitchen light, I no longer see cockroaches scurrying for cover (vermin that are always there, despite your best efforts to keep a clean home).
No danger : when I look out my bedroom window at night, I no longer see lurking people and threatening shadows in the dark. There is absolutely no-one around - only the occasional taxi that serves as transport for the neighbour across the way.
Finding the Key
On the outskirts of the 1000-year old Sicilian village Piazza
Armerina, there is a small olive grove called Sarafina.
It is the oldest and only remaining plot of the once more
extensive cultivated lands of the Di Maggio family. Many of the
olive trees (heavily pruned in 1990) are hundreds of years old.
In August 1997, while on a family visit to Sarafina, I made a surprising discovery in one of the olive trees. Inside a knothole in a tree just to the left of the ruins of the old storehouse (below), something glinted in the sun.
On investigating, I pulled out a large, rusty key. It turned
out to be the long-forgotten storehouse door key, safe in its
hiding place for over 50 years.
School Achievements
I worked hard and did well at school. It was a welcome
escape from an unhappy life at home. I particularly enjoyed
secondary school, an all-boys school (then) called Alexandra
Boys' High.
Academically I wasn't naturally brilliant, and English was
only my third language (on my first day at primary school,
aged 6, I only knew two English words: 'sorry' and 'toilet').
Nevertheless, I was a dedicated student and surprised myself
when I began doing well at secondary school - both
academically and in sport (basketball).
In my final year I ended up being the school Dux (top
academic pupil), and I had made the provincial basketball
team.
I guess the most important thing I learned from my school
career is that natural talent is not a requirement for
success. Hard work and dedication can achieve the exact same
thing.
(my name at school was Mariano instead of Mario - an error made by my parents [who didn't speak English] when they prepared my birth certificate. I had my name changed to Mario on my passport years later)
(my name at school was Mariano instead of Mario - an error made by my parents [who didn't speak English] when they prepared my birth certificate. I had my name changed to Mario on my passport years later)
