greenlights playlist

I recently finished the beautifully written and deeply personal memoir-of-sorts by Matthew McConaughey called Greenlights. Part self-help but mostly witty storytelling, the book––with its brown leather feel––reads like a fatherly chat about life, only written in bumper-sticker wisdom. It reminds me of a song that I carry in my soul by independent artist, Yeek. My favorite lyric in the song goes along the lines of: “by the end of it all, I’ll be speeding on a cosmic freeway.”

Something about catching green lights and finding yourself on an empty freeway feels liberating to all of us, even to the passenger I have been. I like the idea of the transience we occupy, like the cars we trade in in four years’ time. We are temporary. So, all the greenlights we can catch matter. All the freedom we can feel is ravishing and endless in the same way it is fleeting.

Me, I love that giddy momentum of a stop-start. You know… when you come to an almost stop, a barely red that turns green, and you feel your stomach lurching forwards––towards an end––only to move on. I like this feeling, and it felt like this book. I recommend Greenlights for its unpretentious, light and heavy, feeling of stop starting.

Now, you already know that I am wont to make a playlist for the books that make me smile with songs that make me dance. Here’s to greenlights.