GREENLIGHTS BY MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY: OR YOU CAN’T ALWAYS LOVE SOMEONE ELSE’S HISTORY.

 

All the wisdom of the world with that same laidback way of putting people at ease comes flying out of GreenLights by Matthew McConaughey.

Actor Matthew McConaughey has always played roles that beat to a different drum. Greenlights shows that this is not just an act but who he really is. He is wise, he is wild and he is wickedly full of a sense of humor. I loved that this book was set up like an artistically made Smash Journal mixed with reflection and stream-of-consciousness writing and some creative writing. His recollections of his relationships with his father and brothers will keep you in stitches and at the same time teach you a few things.

" we need to put ourselves in places of decreased sensory input so that we can hear the background signals of our psychological processes"

                                                 Greenlights, Matthew McConaughey

In a world full of noise and distractions via our smartphones, television, computers, and especially social media this is wise advice from a man who most might see as all over the place sporadic.

Mattew writes about lessons he learned as a child, as a single man, and then goes into some perspective of his life meeting his wife, Camila Alves, and having his children. This is not an autobiography as he writes at the beginning of the book.

I read a lot of reviews where they were disgusted by the way McConaughey thinks and what he does and the things he grew up being taught :

"McConaughey also paints a very negative picture of his bizarre parents. He talks positively about them but then gives stories of how mean, rude, violent, immoral, and insulting they were. How he is having his mother live with him now is hard to believe--she comes across as a crazed liar who couldn't be trusted, slamming him even more as he became famous. Which brings us to the biggest problem in the book--the author's belief that lying is totally acceptable, as is stealing, backing out of commitments, and using others for personal gain. His parents taught him all that. He calls it "outlaw" rules, where the only right and wrong involves getting caught. So he brags about doing many bad things, and only regrets the few times he is caught. This immoral justification of lying and cheating coming from a guy who claims to be living an honest life. He is delusional but appears to have convinced many others who admire his charming ways of getting what he wants."

                                                 Greenlights reviewer

and yet, who is to judge from a present sense of "morality and virtue" versus the place, time, and upraising Matthew had?
Life wasn't so "woke" or as I call it "crystal clear" back in the 60s and 70s, Our parents did their best at the time that they were raising us, if you lived on the East Coast or any other direction, your sense of place or upbringing might be different than that of someone else you might encounter over the course of your life as is the case still today. Moral outrage is subjective if you didn't live when someone else was a kid. You don't understand what was going on in the area someone grew up.

Some people are born into privilege with a silver spoon in their mouth, some in the everyday suburbia of whitebread America, some into a place full of diversity; deep swamps, some into a more cowboy "outlaw" type of lifestyle, and some in the inner slums of New York. It doesn't make your upbringing better or worse than anyone else's, it was what it was, but according to the reviewers sometimes the era makes your life the worst. Common sense tells us that your life of privilege might have included crappy parents and so your views might even be the same as the one born into the slums. However, the slum child might have had amazing parents and not even known that their life was underprivileged. I don't even understand how one's upbringing makes you a narcissist or corrupt or anything else just because it was different than the person judging you.
Another reviewer asked:

"Yet I wondered if he was aware of how abusive his parents seemed as he told his crazy stories and declared how much love was in their household."

                                                                                                 Greenlights reviewer

For example, Johnny Depp, and let's be honest, Amber Heard too explained in their testimonies during their defamation trial, you can still feel love for members of your family even if they are abusive because come on, they are the ones you love and they are family. McConaughey admits in Greenlights he had a lot of anger towards his mother for quite a while and still loves her even if he lived in a warped "crazy" family as the reader sees it.

At one point in a review discussion, someone called McConaughey a narcissist... and yet, they were reading what they called his memoir! Isn't that the whole point that it is about HIM? He even says in the book it is not an autobiography, but things he has learned in his life sprinkled with a memoir that might help someone else. I especially loved a comment that another reviewer made about his supposed narcissism:

"Narcissist is the new 'racist'...just throw out the ad hominem to kill any chance of dialogue or critical thinking. What makes this man a narcissist exactly? That he isn't self-loathing? That he credits his own efforts and positive mindset for his success? I saw many examples of self-deprecation and humility in this text to dismiss any notion of classical narcissism."

                                                                   Greenlights discussion

The commentator who was calling McConaughey a narcissist was trying to shut down any conversation about the book because in their opinion the book was awful. It is true, there are many personal stories and you can take them as you may, however, they are his to do with it, after all, it is his life and it happened to him.

Greenlights was a much-needed read for me. So many great tidbits of inspiration and a whole lot of hilarious stories that I didn’t feel were awful. The interviews he does for this book through the press, book sites, and podcasts are also enlightening. If you need more YouTube your way to his interviews. I especially liked the one with Jordan B. Peterson.