Cool is being yourself, comfortable in your own skin, knowing that you’re going against the grain and being unswayed by what people think, what the rules say you’re supposed to be or do, and how you measure up against any of the aforementioned.
Cool is taking chances that most other people won’t. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. It often works more than it doesn’t. When it doesn’t, you make no apologies for it. Cool is saying ‘I tried’. Win or lose, your mission always remains the same.
Cool can be offensive, unrefined, politically incorrect. Cool can also create a sense of ease, simply by being steady in the face of chaos, or quickening the pulse in dull instances.
Cool isn’t manufactured. Cool doesn’t ‘try’ to be anything. That’s what makes it cool. Cool is organic, innovative, and intangible. Cool just is.
What has happened to cool? People ‘try’ to be cool. They try to figure out what people like and pattern themselves around it. That’s not cool. It’s a circus act. They’ll play themselves out because it becomes too exhausting to try to be cool.
Cool is effortless. Cool is soulful, an inner peace and calm within that’s radiated outward. Cool isn’t afraid to say or do anything. The uncool is. Cool is magnetic.
(photos: Marlon Brando, Ernest Hemingway, Steve McQueen)
