NO PLACE LIKE TEXAS

Matthew and Camila Alves McConaughey on home, family, and the gravitational pull of the Lone Star State

- JONATHAN MILES

MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY has a theory. Actually, Matthew McConaughey has lots of theories, about everything from how your drinking water quality affects your hairline to the way knowing the truth, seeing the truth, and telling the truth are all very different experiences. But one theory that's special to him goes like this: The closer we get to the site of our conception, the more wholly ourselves we are.

Not birthplace, mind you-conception. To be "full-blown shaking hands with where you were conceived," he explains, is to be hooked into your original essence. He's even thought about running experiments to test this. "Wouldn't it be interesting to take people back to where they were conceived and have them spend a month?" he says. "And then you could ask: How is your life? How are your thoughts? How is your creativity? How do you feel?" If Matthew is feeling good on this sunny Texas day--and that trademark grin of his keeps suggesting it-the reason might be just that: As he speaks, he's roughly 2 miles from Fort Davis, where, in early 1969, Kay and Jim McConaughey conceived him.

For Matthew, this is literal ground zero.

Not that there aren't other reasons for him to be feeling good.

Camila Alves McConaughey, his Brazilian-born wife of 12 years who's an entrepreneur, author, and founder of the lifestyle website Women of Today, is beside him for their first-ever Southern Living cover shoot. The couple has just embarked upon a journey to market their own brand of tequila, which they've named Pantalones, so they've got margaritas on their work to-do list.

To answer Matthew's questions, then: Life? Life is good. Thoughts? Firing right and left. Creativity? Flowing. Feelings? "I get here, and even my metabolism flies," he says.