Good Will Hunting

So, like said a couple of posts ago, I finally watched this movie for the first time a week or so ago.  All I can say is, "Thank you Netflix instant!"  Seriously, I really enjoyed watching this movie.  It has a compelling story and is wonderfully written and acted.
Briefly, for the three other people in the country that haven't seen this movie (that is, living under the same rock I've been living under) the story is as follows:  Insanely smart working class kid solves really hard math problem at MIT, attracting the attention of the brilliant (but still nothing compared to young Will) math professor.  However, Will has lived a hard life in the "economically depressed" parts of Boston and ends up going to jail for hitting a police officer.  The professor persuades the judge to let Will out under his supervision with the promise that he will also see a therapist.  Enter Robin Williams as the brilliant shrink who helps Will (Matt Damon by the way) deal with his past and so learn to connect with people and take chances in life.
Which brings us to what the movie is really about, relationships and the need to allow oneself to be vulnerable in order to build those relationships.  It's not that Will doesn't have friends, he does but he doesn't let himself move beyond that.  We see this in his relationship with a girl (Minnie Driver) he meets a bar (in probably my favorite seen of the whole movie).  They have a great first date but he doesn't call her back.  Why?  Because he sees her as perfect and "doesn't want to ruin that."  As Sean (William's shrink) retorts, "That's a great philosophy.  That way you can go through life without really knowing anybody."
This same difficulty shows up in other ways such as his pushing away of the professor and the fact that he has never done anything with his considerable gifts.  Basically, he is afraid of developing new relationshps with people for fear that they may finally reject him.
The reason for this fear is that his parents had abandoned him and many of the foster parents that he had beat him.  As Sean put it, "the people who were supposed to love him the most abandoned him" or beat him.  That would tend to mess a person up.  Naturally, Sean helps Will realize that what those people did to him was not his fault, that the problem wasn't with him, allowing him finally to take the big chances with his girlfriend and with his gifts.
This got me thinking about myself.  While no Will Hunting, I'm slightly smarter in some ways than the average bear.  Or at least my interests are different.  But I have done very little with that, largly for fear of failure/looking stupid.  You see, I used to think I was a lot smarter than I really am but becoming Catholic helped me see that there are people far more intelligent than I will ever be.  Which is good.  In any case, doing something with my interests and limited gifts has been on my mind a lot anyway (hence this blog) and this movie is making me think about it even more.  And has it turns out, some new opportunities may be cropping up.  So, stay tuned.