Playing With Fire
	Dr. Samuel Johnson is perhaps best known nowadays as a lexicographer (i.e. he wrote a dictionary). Johnson wrote the first real dictionary long before computers, typewriters, carbon paper, or any kind of copying device, relying solely upon a small army of scribes, his own powerful intellect and his prodigious readings from Greek and Latin classics, Shakespeare and well known contemporary authors such as Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift and John Dryden. He also promoted the work of a little-known writer named Richard Savage, a man you would rarely read today unless you are an English major pursuing 18th century poetry. This connection to Richard Savage interested me. Dr Johnson was a towering figure in British literary life--Boswell wrote his biography, he was the talk of London, friend of the rich and famous, including David Garrick, the best known actor of the day (sort of like the Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp of 1760). Johnson wrote The Lives of the Poets, novels, essays, published magazines. You name it, he wrote it. In essence Dr Johnson was the rock star of eighteenth-century London literary circles. So what was it about the minor poet, Richard Savage that led Johnson to write his life and consider Savage one of the foremost poets of his day? Savage himself led a dissipated life, asserting that his mother, an aristocrat, had abandoned him at birth and refused to know or support him ever after. Savage killed a man in a barroom brawl, was sentenced to death for murder, locked up in Newgate Prison, persuaded powerful friends to petition the queen for his release, obtained a release, continued to borrow money from friends, never paid it back, was untrustworthy, and died in a debtor's prison--not an attractive life overall. But, I believe Johnson was attracted to Richard Savage because of his ideas--ideas that were unsettling, dangerous and iconoclastic. In other words, Savage played with fire. Politically he challenged the government of the day, including Prime Minister Walpole. He spared no one from his barbed wit and criticism. People were drawn to him because of his ideas, intellect, passion for poetry, questioning of the status quo and challenge to the dominant thinking of the day. This is why Johnson could ignore the unsavory aspects of Richard Savage's life and celebrate his genius. In talking to our students about playing with fire, I want to draw a few distinctions. My wish for you is that you will play with intellectual fire by challenging current thinking and assumptions--take risks, take a stand on an issue you feel strongly about. Be willing to go out on an intellectual limb. However, let me be clear about what it doesn't mean--it is not about bucking the system just because the system doesn't allow you do something you really want to do, such as driving 100 miles per hour just because you have a kind of daredevil propensity. I'm not talking about courting danger, putting yourself in harm's way, or doing forbidden things in sacred and forbidden places just because you feel it's the way to make your mark. Taking risks is part of the DNA of every adolescent I have ever known, but let us elevate this innate need and instead play with intellectual fire by having the courage to question, to debate ideas late into the night if you have to. Take a position and defend it, then take the opposite position and argue it as though your life depended on it; learn to disagree and still treat each other's ideas with respect while requiring that all ideas be tested. You will be in stellar company. The list of those who have played with fire through their work is endless: Walt Whitman, Virginia Wolfe, Picasso, Igor Stravinsky, Charles Darwin, to name but a few. One of the reasons I love being in schools with young people is that scary, occasionally dangerous, sometimes unsettling ideas are talked about in the open--batted around like tennis balls landing either within the lines of classroom discussion or outside the lines--in the corridors or in the common room, or any other place kids hang out between classes. Don't be afraid to annoy, perhaps even offend and nag, but always according to the rules of civility and open discourse. In thinking about this talk today, I remembered those final lines of The Great Gatsby, "And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." I am borne back to my school, somewhat similar to GFA except, it was all girls and very strict. There was the whole system of O levels and A levels and exams which seemed designed to keep one in an intellectual straight jacket. And then came freedom - university. I remember the excitement, almost intoxication, of being free to challenge, to question, to debate long-held interpretations of authors and poets in my first year seminar, and it was legal! The Professor even encouraged this disagreement; actually seemed to expect it. This was heady stuff. I will never forget the real breakthrough moment when my thesis tutor, and yes, a Dr Johnson expert, exhorted me, "to question, question and then question some more and then, perhaps, you'll get to the heart of the matter, and if you do - challenge it!" You have many great teachers at GFA who seek to shake up your assumptions about life or philosophy and who will feed your curiosity and your knowledge, which so often is the tool with which to pursue your curiosity. Your teachers help you to look behind the façade of everyday existence so you can try to understand the deeper questions that might lie beneath the surface. In this sense I congratulate you all on a great year at GFA, and I wish you a summer of rest, of reading and of playing with fire.