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By Jake Jones
Over my recent winter break I learned a great lesson from two slightly surprising sources, the first was Bruce Springsteen, and the second Matthew McConaughey. The manner of this winter break enlightenment was rooted in the continuation of a tradition I have held throughout my time in college. While my semesters are full of assigned readings and class textbooks, winter break is my opportunity to set my own reading list. Each winter break I try to exclusively read a certain type of literature. This process was originally conceived to allow me to figure out what kinds of works I actually enjoyed reading. While the dedicated format was originally an experiment it has morphed into a key component of my yearly tradition. I spend the months leading up to the break looking through different genres and formats until I find something interesting. My Freshman winter break was mystery novels, Sophomore year was poetry, and Junior year was film scripts.
After successfully exploring three different types of writing I decided that for my final winter break book binge I would be reading only memoirs. Memoirs seemed especially interesting to me as a history major, I have long been fascinated by how people see themselves in the world. My interest in memoirs had been sparked in the summer when I read The World as It Is by Ben Rhodes. The World as It Is is a political memoir documenting the Obama presidency from Rhodes’ point of view as Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting. What fascinated me about this work was understanding the human emotion and reaction behind the events I remember seeing on the news when I was a child. After reading Rhodes’ book I was convinced that the memoir would be my winter break focus.
Throughout the next few months, I worked to develop a list of memoirs to read over winter break. While I had greatly enjoyed The World as It Is, a political memoir, I decided to stray away from political works for my reading list. Instead, I decided to read memoirs from individuals I felt had been forced to make hard decisions to achieve their dreams. Being in my final year of college, and still trying to decide what to do after college I felt hearing stories about the trials others overcame to live their dreams would be useful to my understanding of my current position.
With this in mind, I chose two slightly surprising works for my winter breaking reading Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen and Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey. While both of these memoirs were written by entertainers and would appear at first glance to be very similar, the differences between each work were startling. Springsteen’s work offered a chronological account of his development from a lowly bar band guitarist on the Jersey Coast, to an internationally known superstar. The truly interesting aspect of Springsteen’s work however was his discussion of motivation and how we deal with our feelings throughout our lives. From Born to Run I learned that we all deal with disappointment, and setbacks throughout our lives, and that these events cannot be ignored. In Springsteen’s opinion, we carry hurt within us throughout our lives, whether we chose to show it or not that pain is always there, but we must push ourselves to use that pain as motivation to achieve our goals.
McConaughey’s work however was formatted in a different fashion. Instead of offering a purely chronological account of his life, McConaughey focused on folksy quotes he referred to as “bumper stickers” and a code of “Outlaw Philosophy” found throughout a journal he had kept throughout his life. McConaughey would highlight a quotation from his journal at the beginning of each chapter, and then offer an anecdote from his life to explain the meaning of the quote. In this process, I learned something different from McConaughey’s work than I had from Springsteen. McConaughey’s memoir focused on proving that the true key to achieving your dreams is understanding who you are and always remaining true to that. Many of McConaughey’s quotes originally come across as outlandish lines that could in no way prove to be valuable life lessons, it is only after understanding the experiences that cause him to write such a line that you understand the true meaning of the quote. In understanding the experience the necessitated such a line the reader gains a clearer understanding of who McConaughey is as an individual and thus why this quote is meaningful.
While each work contained different lessons and were formatted in their own unique manner. One lesson appeared in both works. The lesson of 1+1=3. While at first glance this lesson seems like some Orwellian misquote, it is actually a fascinating life lesson. Both Springsteen and McConaughey wrote about 1+1=3 in entirely different periods of their life, but in a very similar fashion. The idea is that when a singular person (1) is matched with a meaning or activity (1) the resulting experience is greater than the sum of its parts (3). For Springsteen the other 1 was performing in front of crowds. He wrote that whenever he stepped on stage no matter what he was facing in life, or the pain he was dealing with both mentally and physically, being in front of others, doing what he loved created a type of bliss much greater than one would anticipate. For McConaughey this equation was achieved when he accepted his position in life. Throughout his early career, McConaughey had sought out stardom and worked to become the world’s most famous actor. It was only after he married and started a family did McConaughey begin only taking roles that he felt were true art instead of roles that would raise his profile. McConaughey wrote that after achieving this change in his life everything clicked, 1+1 now equaled 3 a sensation he had never felt before.
I found this concept interesting when applied to my own position in life. As a senior, I am currently witnessing myself as well as my peers chart our paths after graduation. Some are applying for jobs, others planning travel, or applying for further education. The one thing we all have in common though is we are working towards a perceived goal. We are all hoping to take steps that will allow us to find our extra 1 whether that is a career or a degree or a family we are all in pursuit of something more, something we feel will make us happy. What these works showed me is that the goals we are pursuing at this point in our lives are most likely not our endpoints, at this stage we are working to get to 1+1=2. It is only after we truly learn what is important to us that we will reach 3. While this discovery that the goals we have worked so hard for may not bring about total fulfillment, is disheartening; I realized that this is actually a gift. I realized that only while we work to get to 1+1=2 will we be able to find the missing component that brings us to 1+1=3. This undefinable element of our lives is not something you can plan for and work towards but instead is something we must discover along the way. Some may find it early, and some may never find it at all, but we must always be watching for that one thing that makes us feel so whole, that 1+1 will equal 3.
Jake Jones is a McConnell Scholar in the class of 2021. He is studying political science and history at the University of Louisville.