Alright, Alright, Alright
If you haven’t heard already, Matthew McConaughey just released a book, “Greenlights.” This book includes stories and insights from the actor’s life in chronological order. It has been described as a memoir but McConaughey has called it an “approach book”. We have it and, yep, I was the first one to check it out. I read it in one day.
I have been a fan of McConaughey since I first saw him in the film adaption of the John Grisham book, “A Time to Kill.” He was not hard on the eyes, but that voice is what got me. I have been a sucker for a good voice since I was young, Sean Connery as 007 would be the first time I discovered this about myself. If you have ever heard my husband talk, you would know that a good voice also influenced the choice of my forever partner.
I would recommend McConaughey’s book, not for his voice, but because I am also a sucker for biographies, memoirs, someone’s life story. His life story is unique and I get why he refers to it as an “approach book.” The “approach” to living, or as McConaughey would say, “livin”, spoke to me most during the times of his life that he needed to find his center, times when he didn’t feel right about what was going on, times that he searched and found healing.
Two different times he went on adventures based on a “dream”, I will leave the specifics of why I used quotes for you to find out on your own, or maybe just don’t. Both times he traveled to remote locations where he did not speak the language. Even though he still had people around him, he talked about the solitude he experienced by relying mostly on hand gestures for communication. I was blown away by the vulnerability it would take putting yourself in your situation. What a wonderful way to challenge yourself and to really discover who you are.
Greenlights reminded me of the gift that “livin” is. The title of the bookworm shares probably the most quoted McConaughey line ever, but when you find out the story behind this line, “You just gotta keep livin’ man, L-I-V-I-N.”, you will understand why his foundation is called The Just Keep Livin Foundation and how j.k. livin is really his best quote. I will let you do the research.
2020 just keeps on givin, and not in the good way that justifies leaving the g off the end. The last few weeks have been rough. I spent Saturday crying over some personal stuff then I followed that up by watching a funeral, the crying turned to sobbing. Cleansing as crying can be, it can also leave you pretty empty. Sunday I read “Greenlights.” David’s eulogy to his wife, Sharri’s singing and McConaughey’s book helped bring me back to my center.
According to McConaughy he leaves the g off the end of livin’, “because life is a verb.” His father always used the term peddlin’ (as in peddling pipe) when referencing what he did for a “living”, his occupation. So livin’ is a verb, I get it, not what we do for our occupation, what we do with the time we are given.
2020 is almost over, 2021 could still not be the answer, but we just gotta keep livin’ man. L-I-V-I-N.
Alright, alright, alright, I will do that.
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