Last Thursday for our Preaching class we were given a writing assignment. Each student had to write down a phrase on a piece of paper, fold it up, and put it into a basket. Then you drew a phrase at random and were given about ten minutes to write about/on it. The phrase could be included in your writing, or hinted at, or used as a jumping off point for something entirely different. When we were finished, we were asked to share about the experience. I remarked that the phrase I drew was interesting because it was something I would never say, yet, when I read my writing aloud to my group, I was surprised at how much of me was in it. This comment seemed to excite the professors. Anyway, here is the phrase (which I later learned is a quote from a movie) and what I wrote:

"Ben Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms."

"Ben Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms. But, I never saw Phantoms, so obviously this is not my memory. So, where then did it come? From what did it arise? I don't know, but what I do know is the only Ben Affleck movie I really liked was Good Will Hunting. The funny part about that movie is the title. Well, really how it is read. When I first saw it, and actually for a long time, I read it as Good Will....Hunting. As in a person with well meaning intention going on a hunt. But the way it is meant to be read is with the adjective good as a descriptor of the boy's name, Will Hunting. He was hunting though, for a girl, for himself. "I told them I had to go see about a girl," Robin Williams character remarks, and, in a way, it's the impetus for the whole film. Ben Affleck's character was a supportive role, which is probably why the Damon/Affleck duo had to split, which in turn led to Affleck being the bomb in Phantoms. What the hell is Phantoms? Who remembers that movie? Not me. I remember Good Will Hunting and having to go see about a girl. I'd like a girl to have to go see about. I'd like my friend to drive up to my house to pick me up for work one morning and smile when I did not answer the door. Because they knew. They knew. They're a good friend. Low maintenance."

-R