Matthew McConaughey

Matthew McConaughey 

What Gen X female has not had a crush on Mr. McConaughey?  We have grown up with him and swooned with female co-stars opposite him in rom-coms.  Since the publication of his first book, Greenlights, in 2020 through to today, Mr. McConaughey has shown us that his is more than just an actor telling others stories, he is a storyteller ... specifically, a storyteller of his own story.  He owns his story and if you choose to read his story, you have earned the right to know it.  I read, actually listened to this book, driving to and from school.  Specifically, to and from school of my last year of being a full-time educator.  To listen to Mr. McConaughey tell his story himself (oh, that voice) left a huge mark on my soul.   We were trying to return to our lives following the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown and I had not told anyone but my sister that I had decided to retire at then end of the 20-21 school year.  I was teaching the two favorite and most meaningful classes I would ever be blessed to teach in my thirty years, College 101 and Personal Finance.  I had been teaching the College 101 course for the fifth and final time.  At then end of the semester, I had always given the students in that class a letter from me to them.  It would give them some words of wisdom as they transitioned to #adulting and it would also thank them for how they had uniquely left their mark on me.  I gave them some of the wisdom that I had taken from Mr. McConaughey's book, given them a short letter, and my favorite poem, The Road Not Taken.  

Below is that excerpt (cited), the poem (cited), and the letter I wrote to the College 101 seniors at Francis Howell High School, Class of 2021.

My hope for this is that someone out there will smile, feel included, feel a spark that motivates positive change, that something being felt or experienced is validated, and that there is some insight into their personal journey.  Until next time, what inspires you?

“What is a greenlight?

Greenlights mean go—advance, carry on, continue.

On the road, they are set up to give the flow of traffic the right of way, and when scheduled properly, more vehicles catch more greenlights in succession. They say proceed.

In our lives, they are an affirmation of our way. They’re approvals, support, praise, gifts, gas on our fire, attaboys, and appetites. They’re cash money, birth, springtime, health, success, joy, sustainability, innocence, and fresh starts. We love greenlights. They don’t interfere with our direction. They’re easy. They’re a shoeless summer. They say yes and give us what we want.

Greenlights can also be disguised as yellow and red lights. A caution, a detour, a thoughtful pause, an interruption, a disagreement, indigestion, sickness, and pain. A full stop, a jackknife, an intervention, failure, suffering, a slap in the face, death. We don’t like yellow and red lights. They slow us down or stop our flow. They’re hard. They’re a shoeless winter. They say no, but sometimes give us what we need.

Catching greenlights is about skill: intent, context, consideration, endurance, anticipation, resilience, speed, and discipline. We can catch more greenlights by simply identifying where the red lights are in our life, and then change course to hit fewer of them. We can also earn greenlights, engineer and design for them. We can create more and schedule them in our future—a path of least resistance—through force of will, hard work, and the choices we make. We can be responsible for greenlights.

Catching greenlights is also about timing. The world’s timing, and ours. When we are in the zone, on the frequency, and with the flow. We can catch greenlights by sheer luck, because we are in the right place at the right time. Catching more of them in our future can be about intuition, karma, and fortune. Sometimes catching greenlights is about fate.

Navigating the autobahn of life in the best way possible is about getting relative with the inevitable at the right time. The inevitability of a situation is not relative; when we accept the outcome of a given situation as inevitable, then how we choose to deal with it is relative. We either persist and continue in our present pursuit of a desired result, pivot and take a new tack to get it, or concede altogether and tally one up for fate. We push on, call an audible, or wave the white flag and live to fight another day.

The secret to our satisfaction lies in which one of these we choose to do when.

This is the art of livin.

I believe everything we do in life is part of a plan. Sometimes the plan goes as intended, and sometimes it doesn’t. That’s part of the plan. Realizing this is a greenlight in itself.

The problems we face today eventually turn into blessings in the rearview mirror of life. In time, yesterday’s red light leads us to a greenlight. All destruction eventually leads to construction, all death eventually leads to birth, all pain eventually leads to pleasure. In this life or the next, what goes down will come up.

It’s a matter of how we see the challenge in front of us and how we engage with it. Persist, pivot, or concede. It’s up to us, our choice every time.

This is a book about how to catch more yeses in a world of nos and how to recognize when a no might actually be a yes. This is a book about catching greenlights and realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green.

greenlights.

By design and on purpose . . . Good luck.”

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­“Robert Frost was right, taking the road less traveled can make all the difference. But that road isn't necessarily the road with the least traffic. It may be the road that we, personally, have traveled less. The introvert may need to get out of the house, engage with the world, get public. The extrovert may need to stay home and read a book. Sometimes we need to get out there, sometimes we need to get in there. Some days our road less traveled is a solitary dirt trail. On others it's the subway on the 7 line.” - Greenlights, Part 3

Excerpts from Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey Copyright © 2020 by Matthew McConaughey. 

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

(American. “The Road Not Taken.” Poets.org, 9 Jan. 2023, poets.org/poem/road-not-taken. Accessed 20 Aug. 2023.)

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Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

My letter -

25 May 2021

I sat and stared at this blank page of a screen for most of the past week trying to write my traditional senior letter.  There were a lot of things going through my head of what I wanted to say, should say, and even what not to say.

It finally hit me this morning as to why I am struggling so much on what to say, this is my last official senior letter of my 30 year career and it is just possible that I don’t want to write it.  Why?  Because that means, like you, I am one more thing closer to the end.

It is okay to be afraid, I am, but be brave in facing your fears.  

I recently finished listening to Matthew McConaughey’s book, Greenlights. You would not think that the man that is known for the Dazed and Confused phrase, “Alright, Alright, Alright,” could be so profound. I can not say it any better than he did.