The New Cool

The con­cept of “cool” orig­i­nated in the late 1950’s. It started as a sort of James Dean thing. The look was one of blue jeans, a long coat, and a cig­a­rette. The leather jacket came along with Mar­lon Brando. The facial expres­sions were detached, lonely, and a bit angry. That was cool!
Cool has been rede­fined in each decade since. It also now includes all gen­er­a­tions. Eighty year old peo­ple use the term. Each lit­tle sub­cul­ture has its own stan­dards for it. Some com­puter geeks con­sider Steve Jobs as cool, while oth­ers are Bill Gates clones. Gang mem­bers have their lit­tle sym­bols. Col­lege fra­ter­ni­ties have theirs. John Deere logos abound in the coun­try, while sports car logos have yank in the cities.
High fuel prices are here to stay. They are the impe­tus for the new cool. The small car, the bicy­cle, the golf cart, the apart­ment closer to work, walk­ing shoes, the sail­boat instead of the yacht, and homes equipped with wind­mills, solar pan­els, and eco-friendly sys­tems denote the new cool. Being cool can be an expen­sive endeavor or done on the cheap. Behe­moth is out, mod­est is in.
My def­i­n­i­tion of cool has noth­ing to do with the flow of fuel on the planet. It is not dis­played by trin­kets or reac­tions to them, it is not iden­ti­fied with some elite lan­guage sys­tem or holier-than-thou buzz words. “Cool” has to do with an aspi­ra­tion for a deep con­nec­tion with the Cre­ator. It is reflected in a series of atti­tudes I have toward myself and the world around me. It does not chase the winds of fleet­ing trends, or exhaust itself in ego-building. Faith is cool.