Talk by Headmaster of Ardvreck

Your Headmaster is a persuasive man - I would not normally turn up to an occasion like this in the clothes I wore solidly, every day, for two weeks during the summer holiday. Still, I told Mr Hunter I’d like to talk about risk and he said he could think of nothing more appropriate.

My sixteen year old son, Edward, and I did 3,500 miles on our bike during those fourteen days in July, eventually reaching - and returning from - Nordkapp, which is the very northernmost extremity of continental Europe. (Though actually it’s on an island, and actually the very northernmost spot is about three miles to the west). Each and every time I pulled on these leathers and this jacket it occurred to me that what I was doing was not only fun, but also dangerous; that it also brought an element of danger to my son. And that feeling was, and is, greatly amplified every time I put on this helmet. Same when I set off from home yesterday afternoon - same when I set off from Merchiston later this morning. Will it be the last time I ever do it? Will it be removed by me at the end of another lovely journey, or by some doctor in the spinal injuries unit? It makes me very aware of risk.

I set myself the aim of reaching Nordkapp on two wheels a couple of years back and actually getting there felt like - and was - a real achievement. In the end in terms of road safety we only even had to brake sharply once, and that was to avoid a reindeer which stepped unexpectedly onto the road in Finland. We had no trouble with traffic and we did not break down on the hundred odd mile section at the very top of Lapland during which we went through not one single settlement you could even call a village and passed only half a dozen dwellings or other vehicles. I have absolutely no idea at all what we would have done if the engine had died or a tyre had burst.

And that, you see, is part of the point: that risk is a really big part of why that hundred miles is one of my strongest memories of the whole trip, why when I put these clothes on, slightly bizarrely here in your chapel for sure, it brings back very clearly the twin senses of an element of danger and an element of achievement.

A few weeks ago Richard Hammond, in a jet powered dragster and going three times faster than we ever did on the bike, had an almighty crash. For a time he was in a critical condition in Leeds General Hospital and it looked as if he might not pull through. Mercifully he is now out of danger and it even seems possible that he will make a full recovery. There has been a huge great debate in the wake of his accident and I am here to tell you that I for one am completely on the side of Jeremy Clarkson; I think his response is absolutely the right one. It seems, as Clarkson put it, that this sort of thing is turning into “something which in our risk-averse society we cannot understand any more: IT WAS AN ACCIDENT”.

Now you think for a moment of someone who has really achieved something. It need not be a Neil Armstrong stepping out onto the surface of the moon or a Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier in a rocket plane - just anyone who has achieved something significant - something which has won your personal admiration. I will bet that the vast majority of you are thinking about someone who has also taken a significant risk. And this, you see, is absolutely the point.

It isn’t just “nothing ventured, nothing gained” - it is far more important than that. It isn’t even dear old Batman’s father saying that we fall over so that we can learn how to pick ourselves up. It is because if we do not take risks we will not progress, either as individuals or as a society. Sure, there are some risks which it is completely stupid to take. Smoking is one; taking drugs is another. This is because if you take such a risk just to gratify some urge or appetite you are not far short of wasting your time. If on the other hand, you set yourself a goal, determine to go about it intelligently, prepare properly and above all bring common sense to the endeavour, you will end up doing something truly worthwhile - and it will have been better for having an element of risk.

You may not have heard of Gus Grissom. But if you have, you will know that he was an astronaut, one of the “original seven” in the 1960s and the second American, after Alan Shephard to go into space. You will also know that in January 1967 he died in a horrific fire on what was meant to be a completely routine launch pad test of what would have been Apollo One, with his crew members Roger Chaffee and Ed White.

It is both ironic and incredibly powerful that just a few weeks before this happened he had said, “If we die, we want people to accept it: we’re in a risky business.” And as it turned out, without his death and that of his crew, in that way and at that time, it is entirely possible that man would never have made it to the Moon at all. As President Reagan put it after another very high profile NASA accident, the Challenger shuttle explosion: “The future is not for the fainthearted.” Well, enough. ? Yes use your common sense ? No don’t take risks because of empty hollow appetites. ? But boys, do learn to take them in order to gather to yourselves experiences which 1. give you something to talk about 2. give you something to feel proud of, and 3. which will help to define you for yourself and for all those who know you.

If anyone wants to have a look at the Harley Davidson on which I am very much going to try to avoid killing myself, now or ever - though I accept that I might - it is - again at the request of Mr Hunter - parked outside.