Greenlights: officially a fan

I’ll be candid, for chunks of this autobiography, I zoned out, swimming in my own thoughts and not McConaughey’s narrative. Audiobooks are just like that, built for multitasking. However, the parts that I was fully present for had me hooked on every single syllable. The diction? Exemplar. The contrast? Illuminating. Moral of the story woven into encapsulating life experience? As he says, “The best advice comes from people who don’t give advice.” Mr. Matthew McConaughey, what can I say. Officially a fan. Listening to Greenlights was just like watching a soap, where you miss a couple of episodes, but still carry on, and the ones you see and remember, you cherish and adore. I still followed the five decades of McConaughey’s life, exciting me for what is to come in my twenties, thirties, and then forties, and glance back the way he does, with a helping of humour. Regrets? Nada. “Can we live in a way where we look forward to looking back?” Well said, well said.

I’d argue that McConaughey narrated his own life so well, you can listen to it just for his narration and nothing else. He does all of the voices, the surprised yelps, the uncontrollable laughs. OK, this guy did win Best Actor at the Oscars.

At the outset, Matthew is proud and stubborn and intimidating. He doesn’t walk into a place like he wanna buy it, but walks in like he owns it. But deep, deep, deep inside, McConaughey and I do share a common denominator of hard work, ambition and risk-loving inclinations. He has high standards. Candidly arrogant and with a sharp eye for humour, McConaughey is just so absolutely full of himself, but he sure owns it. His life presented him with lots of greenlights — little intersections and moments that ushered him forwards. Some of it is luck, admittedly or not, and much of it is raw talent and perspective. See the greenlights. See the redlights as greenlights.

Noticing these greenlights was his message. A self-help in disguise executed smoothly. Do listen to the audiobook if you want to zone out, have a chuckle, sharpen the saw, and refresh your perspective. To illustrate his point:

“We all step in shit from time to time. We hit roadblocks, we fuck up, we get fucked, we get sick, we don’t get what we want, we cross thousands of “could have done better”s and “wish that wouldn’t have happened”s in life. Stepping in shit is inevitable, so let’s either see it as good luck, or figure out how to do it less often.”

So, McConaughey can be an actor (for rom coms and the colossal blockbusters), a motivational speaker, a writer, a husband and a father, and an audiobook narrator. I really did enjoy his writing, but certainly not as much as his raw talent in Interstellar. I still fondly think of it as one of the best films I have ever seen. McConaughey’s acting blew me away.