Sean: My wife used to fart when she was nervous. She had all sorts of wonderful little idiosyncrasies. She used to fart in her sleep. I thought I’d share that with you. One night it was so loud it woke the dog up. She woke up and went ‘ah was that you?’ And I didn’t have the heart to tell her. Oh!
Will: She woke herself up?
Sean: Ah…! But Will, she’s been dead for 2 years, and that’s the shit I remember: wonderful stuff you know? Little things like that. Those are the things I miss the most. The little idiosyncrasies that only I know about: that’s what made her my wife. Oh she had the goods on me too, she knew all my little peccadilloes. People call these things imperfections, but they’re not. Ah, that’s the good stuff. And then we get to choose who we let into our weird little worlds.
~ Robin Williams as Sean Maguire, Matt Damon as Will Hunting
When I was reminiscing recently about a math teacher from high school, my mind lighted on a little idiosyncrasy of hers. It warmed my heart to think about how some part of her body always seemed to be covered in chalk dust. At the time I felt kind of embarrassed about the chalk on her nose or smeared across her brow. It was sort of odd. Odd like my English teacher that would stir his coffee with his metal ruler or if that was misplaced, then with his metal scissors. But now, removed from those things, I find them warm details that make up a magical story.
I started to think about my own quirks. The things that feel odd about me, the things that my closest friends or family may tease me about, the things I do or say that are my own unique “imperfections.” Perhaps they are things I notice and try to change or see and try to hide. Perhaps they embarrass me. Perhaps they are things I’m oblivious to and others just accept as part of my Mandy-ness.
What seems odd in present life will someday be the very thing that makes our story live on after we are gone. Our quirks are not imperfections. They add color to our messy canvas. They liven up the present. They are the “good stuff.”
