Over the years I’ve become fascinated by Keanu Reeves, one of the biggest stars in the world with movies such as Speed, The Matrix trilogy, and the John Wick series to his credit, but I first remember him as Ted in the silly and very funny film “Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure”. And as he became a much bigger star over the years, I remember spotting him on TV, driving around Hollywood, not in a fancy car, but on a scooter, and when he stopped on a street corner, he parked his scooter and interacted with some guys hanging out there, he just seemed like the opposite of everything in Hollywood, I thought way back then that Keanu Reeves seems like a genuinely cool guy in real life, not some pretend cool character in a movie, and as my opinion of him started to rise, little did I know that Keanu Reeves had a spirituality and wisdom about him that was far beyond what I could have ever imagined, and I’ll get to that in a minute, but just a quick back story on his life first. Keanu Charles Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon on September 2nd 1964, his mother is of English descent and his Father, whose an American from Hawaii, is of Chinese, English, Irish, Native Hawaiian, and Portuguese descent. His father left the family when Keanu was just 3 years old, eventually that resulted in him moving often and eventually attending four different high schools while battling dyslexia. He moved to Los Angeles in 1986, and his first feature length film role soon followed that same year in the crime thriller “Rivers Edge” opposite Dennis Hopper and Crispin Glover. “Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure” came out in 1989, and the role that got him noticed as an action star was “Point Break” which he starred in opposite Patrick Swayze in 1991, and he worked steadily, but his real breakout action movie star hit was “Speed” in 1994, which he shared top billing with Sandra Bullock. And then in 1999 he starred in “The Matrix” as Neo, which cemented him into superstar status, and that was followed by two sequels that he only agreed to do if he also got a portion of the profits, and the films where such worldwide hits, his combined pay for all three movies was over 250 million dollars, and that’s when glimpses of Reeve’s truly charitable and selfless ways began to show up in big ways, as he gave half the money he earned to the film crews, he was under no obligation to do so, and to me it seemed highly underreported at the time. And just as his worldwide superstar status was being cemented, he learned of his sister Kim’s diagnosis of leukemia, and after that he was always seen by her side, as he donated millions of dollars towards various charity cancer organizations, trying to quicken the pace for treatments for his sisters illness, and helping untold others in the process. After she battled the disease for more than a decade, and through her faith and determination, with her brother by her side, she emerged victorious over her disease. But Keanu was not done with helping others fight cancer, and he set up a private foundation that donated to children’s hospitals and several cancer research facilities, with just one caveat, that his name not be used and the focus was on the kids and research, his charitable ways also spread to organizations such as PETA , the SickKids Foundation, and Stand Up to Cancer. So with that charitable spirit in tow, I always liked to look out for any Keanu Reeves interviews, as he always seemed to have this peaceful, spiritual way about him as he carefully gave answers that were filled with much wisdom and insight. And the one that recently led me to think about writing an article about Keanu was his appearance on The late show with Stephen Colbert on May 11th, 2019. Now Colbert was no stranger to tragedy himself, losing his Father and two brothers in a plane crash in 1974, and he has some touching and powerful thoughts himself about overcoming that loss, so as the interview was ending Colbert asked Keanu a very heavy and complex question, which he phrased like this “What do you think happens when we die, Keanu Reeves?” Reeves then sat back in his chair for a moment, and said very simply “ I know that the ones who love us will miss us” and the studio became quiet for a moment, and Colbert, who always seems to have an answer or opinion on the tip of his tongue, was at a loss for words by Reeves simple answer on the nature of loss, he just sits there, contemplating it for a few moments, before breaking into a genuinely touching smile, and reaches out to shake Reeves hand as the audience collectively lets out an audible “Awwww” that’s so heartfelt I can’t truly describe that moment, you can look it up and see it for yourself though, as I can’t post it here due to copyright infringement. So after that I decided to write that article on Reeves, and the more research I did on him, I became even more astonished that he seemed to give out these deeply profound answers to questions on a regular basis, and I came away truly touched by his words, and I wanted to do him justice by not writing just a fluff or filler piece, and I had ended up with the conclusion that Reeves was not only a big celebrity who cared little for celebrity, but that he was one of most peaceful and spiritual people that I have ever researched, and his words are filled with such wisdom that it’s somewhat incredible. What I came away with was enough to fill a book, so picking out just some of his quotes for the sake of brevity in this article was no simple task, but here are some of them in no particular order.

“ I always felt like I’m not from this generation, I just live in it. Because the way my mindset differs from the majority, you’d think I come from a different dimension. That's why I keep things to myself because a lot of people won’t understand me”

“ If you have been brutally broken but still have the courage to be gentle to other living beings, than you’re a badass with the heart of an angel”

“The reason people awaken is because they have finally stopped agreeing to things that insult their soul”

“When you die they won’t remember your car or your house. They will remember who you were. Be a good human, not a good materialist”

“Money doesn’t mean anything to me. I’ve made a lot of money, but I want to enjoy life and not stress myself in building my bank account. I give lots away and live simply, mostly out of a suitcase in hotels. We all know that good health is more important.”

“To me, nature is a place where you go when you feel exhausted or sad. I’m more happy when I’m surrounded by the sound of birds than the sound of people”

“ Never be defined by your past. It was just a lesson not a life sentence”

“You learn nothing from life if you think your right all the time”

“Sometimes you have to remind people that you can be an asshole too” (let me slip in here and say that I particularly like that one, lol)

“ Don’t confuse my personality with my attitude. My personality is who I am. My attitude depends on who you are.”

“If you notice, the people who are always alone are those that love too much, care too much and are gentle & kind and compassionate too much”

“When you’re going through hard times and wonder where God is, remember the teacher is always quiet during the test”

“ Never beg someone to be in your life. If you text, call, visit and still get ignored, walk away. it’s called SELF RESPECT”

“Someone told me the other day that he felt bad for single people because they are lonely all the time. I told him that's not true. I’m single and I don’t feel lonely. I take myself out to eat, I buy myself clothes. I have great times by myself. Once you know how to take care of yourself company becomes an option and not a necessity”

“If you push me away, I promise you , you won’t find me where you left me. My heart is big, but not big enough to deal with people who decide to love me when it’s convenient for them”

‘Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth”

“ People will provoke you until they bring out your ugly side, then play the victim when you go there”

“ I dream of a world where I can walk down the street and hear people talk about morality, sustainability and philosophy instead of the Kardashians”

“Sometimes we get so caught up in our daily lives that we forget to take the timeout to enjoy the beauty in life”

“If you can make a woman laugh, your seeing the most beautiful thing on God’s earth”

“When you truly understand Karma then you realize you are responsible for everything in your life. It is incredibly empowering to know that your future is in your hands”

And there’s much more where that came from above, and as I was a fan of Keanu Reeves before I started researching this article, I always liked his movies and he seemed like such a genuinely nice guy, I myself don’t really care about celebrity, it doesn’t impress me. But this article wasn’t about celebrity at all, and if you asked me now who’s my favorite movie star, I’d say Keanu Reeves, but not because he’s a movie star, but I’m now a huge fan of Keanu Reeves the human being, and actually he’s the only celebrity I really would ever care to meet if I could meet any celebrity, because I feel he would not consider himself special or above me or anyone else, and I’m absolutely positive that I’d leave that meeting with more than I went into it with.