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What does it mean
to be a “Johnnie”?
Do you still
consider yourself
to be one?
To be a Johnnie means
you’ve grappled with
some of the deepest and
most important questions
that lie at the core of our
collective human
experience. During the
four years at the college
this grappling takes you
many places, some of
which you might not be
comfortable with: it could
be through the depths of
the subconscious à la
Freud, or into the realm of
Mr. Edward Frame ’09
Redding, Connecticut
Freelance television production assistant
Mr. Salvatore Scibona ’97
Providence, Rhode Island
Award-winning fiction writer; Guggenheim fellow;
National Book Award finalist and recipient of the New York
Public Library’s Young Lion’s Award in fiction for his novel
The End
;
writing coordinator, Fine Arts Work Center
in Provincetown; instructor of Advanced Fiction: The Novel,
Harvard University Summer School
quantum mechanics. In
any case, to be a Johnnie
means you’ve tackled
these important issues
and world-altering
thoughts head-on and
emerged a stronger
person for it. Yes, I still
consider myself a
Johnnie, because once
you start down that path,
which I have, it’s hard to
turn around and close your
eyes to it all.
Why does
St. John’s
continue to be
necessary in
today’s world?
A novelist I know once
told me, “You have to
make a mind for yourself
that you want to live in.”
Insofar as we have to
carry the burden of
consciousness around
with us until we die or go
senile, shouldn’t we take
some control over the
shape and dimensions of
that consciousness? If you
fill your consciousness
with reality TV, that will be
the mind you live in.
If you fill it only with the
refined competencies
you need to perform
your job, that will be the
mind you live in. If you
fill it with reading that
compels a continuously
deeper regard for the
mystery of human
experience, that will be
the mind you live in.