My Cool

Sometimes it is hard to see the good or cool through our daily slog of life. While sitting down tonight completely unaware about what I wanted to write about I took a sip of my cheap Merlot and it hit me like the tart finish of the dark red vino. We all have done some cool stuff in our lifetimes. Don’t compare your life to someone else’s just look at your life. Go back as far as you can remember and think about those memories. Of course, we can all pull up a few things, some good and other bad, but if we really delve into the depths of our memory bank there are cool things for sure. Cool things are also relative. What you think is cool, others will think is stupid or trivial. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you think it is cool. This isn’t something you discuss with others because you don’t want to be swayed by others’ perception of what a cool event is. If you thought it was an experience that rated cool on your scale then it is cool, neat, an experience that you had that you would never trade.

Some of the cool stuff that I remember isn’t necessarily riveting or even the most positive of outcomes, but the experience made it cool. I remember my mom driving myself and two other kids all over the northeast in an RV, so we could race BMX nationals. Yeah, that was cool, but the real cool part was getting lost in Harlem, NY when they would jump on your car to clean the windows back in the 80’s. Another cool part of that trip was that something happened with the battery and she couldn’t turn off the RV, so she drove all the way home, over 24 hours, without taking a rest. She was beat, but I will never forget that trip because of those experiences. There are many cool things that surrounded the BMX life and as I type they are just flooding back into the front of the brain.

Another cool experience was being a little kid and watching my dad and granddaddy race in the SCCA. They raced all over the southeast. I remember playing in the red clay at Road Atlanta, riding a tire at Sebring to mow down the weeds on the backstretch, watching my granddaddy crash at Daytona, and knowing that he held the overall speed record for his displacement of racecar at Talladega for many years. Those memories and moments are special. Because of racing I got to meet many famous people, who while at the track, were just racecar drivers. Those experiences have led me to look at people differently than a lot of the people I listen to daily.

I have relatives who have faced a bear while fishing in Alaska, have worked with the greatest rock stars of our time, and who have picked themselves up from humble beginnings to become successful in their chosen fields. I find this stuff cool because of the example that has been set and that it shows what is possible if you chase what you want to do.

What about cool animals. My brother in law was a K-9 officer. His dogs were amazing. So well trained but amazingly lovely to the family that cared for him. His skill set and the dog’s respect for the job necessary were just astounding. What about our family friend that has a dog that detects sugar levels to help with Type 1 diabetes. This is just a fabulous skill that has been trained into this dog. He has also helped others completely by accident because it is what he was trained to do. This stuff is just cool. The training and skills that animals are capable of is beyond any expectation I have ever had for one of my beloved pound puppies. Coolness is so relative to the person that thinks it is cool. Don’t get me wrong, I think some of these dogs that are being touted as “therapy dogs” are being abused but that really isn’t for me to judge. If you are religious, you know you will judged at the time of reckoning. I will just keep looking for cool animals and their amazing behaviors.

Lastly for this evening, people are cool. The jobs they do, the dreams they have, and the pursuit of those dreams they feel are worthy of chasing. I have a couple of friends who are firearms enthusiasts. Not what you would term weirdo’s but truly students of weaponry and what they can do. They study them and teach others how to safely use them. What about the college professors that I know that when they are not teaching are traveling the world seeing places that the rest of us only see on our sign-on screen on our computers. They have their favorite spots and share their experiences in the modern digital world, so we can all see the splendor they are capturing firsthand. Then there are my entrepreneurial friends who are trying to help others to help themselves. The status quo just isn’t their cup of tea. They may have normal careers but there is more out there, and they want it. I have classmates from high school who are making a difference in the world of medicine, law, business, and education. These people are cool. They are pursuing their excellence for their own reasons. Maybe it is for social status, economic reasons, or maybe it is because they love it. They don’t think they are cool but that makes them even cooler in my eyes. As I stated earlier, cool is a relative thought. Take some time to reflect as far back as you can, and I know, you too will have some amazingly cool things that you have done, and it will make you want to do more cool things as you move forward.

Tonight’s little thought comes on the eve of a visit to an amazing place tomorrow for Michelle and myself. When we visit we get to witness people moving around and their entire mission is to serve the people there to either make their days as comfortable as possible or to eradicate the non-cool from their bodies. The battles that are fought day and night are not cool, but the care, technology, compassion, and staff make the cool emit like early morning sun rays.

Get up early and watch the sun rise. Watch it set as well. Take every moment you have, and it will be hard for something cool not to happen. Sometimes the moon shines bright enough for the cool to be seen as well. Enjoy your days and don’t let others tell you what cool is.