how the cool flows

i think it's funny how our definition of "cool" is fluid throughout our lives.
when you're 5, cool is a clown at a party who makes balloon flowers & gives out tootsie rolls.
when you're 10, cool is getting hand me down clothes from your popular teenage cousin.
when you're 14, cool is a boy who dresses outrageously & uses bad language and doesn't seem to care that all the adults are keeping on eye on him.
when you're 20, cool is smoking cigarettes, having too many drinks on the weekends & making out w/ a stranger.

i think that at some point during my 20's, cool stopped being such a focus in my life, stopped being something i strove to either be or get close to. i was too busy trying to have a job that paid the bills and cars that ran & figure out my infertility issues. trying to get out of one state & into another. i didn't have time for cool anymore. at some point i realized that the people who used to count as cool didn't qualify anymore if they were still acting that way as an adult. it wasn't cool for a man to make others nervous due to his wardrobe or foul language. it wasn't cool to smoke or make out with strangers. clowns w/ candy don't interest me & well... i still like hand me downs, so i guess maybe i had it right when i was 10.

google defines cool as "fashionable and attractive at the time; often skilled or socially adept; "he's a cool dude"; "that's cool"; "Mary's dress is really cool"; "it's not cool to arrive at a party too early"

or  "Cool is an aesthetic of attitude, behavior, comportment, appearance and style, influenced by and a product of the Zeitgeist. Because of the varied and changing connotations of cool, as well its subjective nature, the word has no single meaning. ..."

recently a friend of mine who is a husband of one & father of four posted a video on facebook.




he commented that he saw a lot of himself in that, but he was sad to admit to being so uncool. i immediately wanted to reassure him that he is absolutely cool if he's like those guys. to a wife & mom, a man who does yard work, balances the checkbook, fixes stuff, watches movies with the kids, can cry at a disney movie, gives his dollars to his family & sings night night songs & puts the kids off to bed is the new definition of cool. he sure beats the cussing, badly dressed cool guys of my youth.

so by this new standard of cool, my dad is the coolest guy i know.
who knew?