Positive Thinking

At least twenty-one people were treated for burn injuries after participating in a firewalk last Thursday night at a Tony Robbins event in downtown San Jose. The event was called "Unleash the Power Within." Following the event, the crowd walked across the street to the park where twelve lanes of hot coals measuring ten feet long and two hundred twelve feet wide rested on the grass. Participants were encouraged to walk across coals between one thousand two hundred and two thousand degrees Fahrenheit. The crowd was estimated at approximately six thousand. 
How many of these individuals chose to bare their tootsies to the red-hot coals is anybody's guess, but it's a pretty sure thing that twenty-one of them did. Why not? Oprah did it, and that all worked out just fine. It's a mind-over-matter thing. A conquer-your-fears thing. It's also a bit of a trick. If you keep moving, your feet don't have enough time to heat up to the temperature of the coals. A quick touch of the iron doesn't singe your finger, but it does tell you that the iron is plenty hot. Not two thousand degrees hot, but also not linger-there-for-a-while cool.
A spokesperson for Mister Robbins, who has already done this firewalking thing so don't even go there, said "We have been safely providing this experience for more than three decades, and always under the supervision of medical personnel. We continue to work with local fire and emergency personnel to ensure this event is always done in the safest way possible."
San Jose Fire Captain Reggie Williams, a local fire and emergency personnel, had this to say: "We discourage people from walking over hot coals." Captain Reggie won't be getting his own show on the Oprah Winfrey Network anytime soon.