The Art of Living a Courageous Life - Matthew McConaughey - #1000

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
So I mentioned to you that this is Episode 1000

**Matthew McConaughey** (0:03)
Yeah.

**Chris Williamson** (0:04)
It's been seven and a half years. We just crossed a billion views the other day as well.

**Matthew McConaughey** (0:09)
Congratulations.

**Chris Williamson** (0:10)
And as a little surprise to you, we wanted to take you back to an environment that you probably know at least a little bit well.

**Matthew McConaughey** (0:22)
Ah, Cooper's Place, Alberta, Canada, where we shot it. We planted, production planted all those cornfields too. They're as far as the eye could see. And this is the road. Cooper drives up on the way out, and that's that Hans Zimmer countdown. 10, 9, 8, leaving children to follow a dream.
Lift off.

**Chris Williamson** (0:50)
I love how quick that is, that transition from him leaving to going. I think that's so cool.

**Matthew McConaughey** (0:54)
Yeah, I think it was, you know, Chris' version of tying the human drama, what would you do, a father leaving children to go do what they know they were meant to do and leave this earth and then from there on, time changes. Yeah, at the end of this shoot, when it was wrapped and it was clear, we had no more shots, no more scenes on this location, and my family and I were in my airstream on the set. It's where we lived. We got at the edge of base camp, we turned our airstream to face out to the mountains, and right behind us is your medical and your food, whatever you need from production. But we stayed extra few days and just hiked it and stuff. One of the things that was fun is I let my son, probably, I don't know what, I believe I was seven, eight at the time.
We got in my truck and I let him drive through these cornfields as fast as he wanted. He replicated this. He was going 360 and all around because I had checked. I was like, they go, no, it's for as far as you can see. It's just like the salt flats, hit it. I've got some video of that and some pictures. It was top. Unreal.

**Chris Williamson** (2:10)
Why do you say life rhymes?

**Matthew McConaughey** (2:15)
I think Mark Twain said that first, didn't he? A version of that. History rhymes.
Seems for as much as we go, our generation is so different than the last one. There's never been anything like this. The ebbs and the flows, the debits and the assets. And for every new technology and old, there's a debit and an old culture. And it seems like it's always, it's right there somewhat equalized and balanced. And then there's a rhyme in that, that sort of ecclesiastical, you know, there's a time for everything and for everything you reap, there will you sow, there's a time to kill, there's a time to live, there's a time to plant, there's a time to gather, there's a time to spread. It's very Emersonian too, you know, and for every new technology we lose an old culture, you know, and these things that we think are contradictory, heaven and hell, hate and love that we think are like this, an imbalance for the truth of them, I think is in that third eye where they overlap and they all do overlap. They all sort of balance themselves out and I don't know how much new under the sun we actually are doing. I think we call it different names. I think we change the labels. I think you get some things that are extra strength and some things that are unleaded. But I think they all pretty much balance out and there's rhyme and balance.

**Chris Williamson** (3:54)
What's your perspective on coincidence in life?

**Matthew McConaughey** (3:57)
Yeah.

**Chris Williamson** (3:58)
Serendipity.

**Matthew McConaughey** (3:58)
Yeah, man. Well, first time I have it is deja vu. And you have it twice, they call it vu deja. Let's flip that thing around upside and backwards, both sides of the coin.
Look, in some ways, it's the beginning of an argument for God, a divine plan, fate, karma. In other ways, I don't mean that's fun to start doing that math to try and prove our way there.
But it also feels like those are the swing backs. Oh, I've been here before. Ah, I was here before. This life, it doesn't have the period at the end of it. Who knows how many, you know, many lives, many masters. I don't know if that's true. It just sure makes, it sure feels like it is sometimes. That's a rhyme. That's a real nice, a real time when life does rhyme. And you look and you look for the math and you look for the science to add it up and it ain't there. And that way I do think science is the practical pursuit of God, of which we'll never prove. And that's the point. So there you have belief and faith for that which can't be proven. But the pursuit of that is also why I think God loves an atheist scientist. It's like, yes, keep it up. Pursuit of that is why I think in my agnostic years, where I said, self-reliance, it's on me, man. Forget fate, I'm not relying on God. I ain't praying for nothing. It's on me. Responsibility, self-reliance. I believe that when I came back to my faith, that I heard God applauding. Thank you for having your hands on the wheel. Thank you for taking the self-reliance and saying it is on you. Cause you know what? I need that.