Profiles in Cool

Can anyone really define the word cool? Webster's Dictionary defines it as “fashionably attractive or impressive.” in this light the fancy car, the latest cell phone, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are cool. For some, making lots of money is cool. Kids learn young that a brand becomes cool (Old Navy, Aeropostale). Cool is the popular kid at school, it's having stuff. In recent years cool has been tattoos. But is cool only about things? James Dean was cool, but what made him cool? Was it defiance, was it his enigmatic personality, fame? Is cool edgy, dark, mysterious (Twilight)? Or is cool really about actions, good deeds, being helpful? Maybe it's time to give cool a new definition.

I remember reading a book written by John F. Kennedy called Profiles in Courage. In it he chronicles the lives of several notable Americans including Daniel Webster, John Quincy Adams, and Robert Taft (Ohio's). Kennedy displayed courage himself as a Navy Lieutenant in command of his famous patrol torpedo boat, the often celebrated PT 109. After a Japanese destroyer sunk the PT 109 Kennedy, seriously injured, saved several of his crew from drowning. About a decade later he wrote Profiles in Courage while recuperating from a back operation. Kennedy had done something courageous, then later in life wrote about others who had done something courageous.

My neighbor is a WWII vet. He's 86 years old and in better shape than most men in their 30s. He lives alone and remains very active including daily walks. He is humble, putting others before himself. On the birthday of each of my three kids, he leaves a genuine card with a twenty dollar bill tucked inside. If a tree branch should be downed by wind and fall in my yard, I will find it sawed and stacked neatly next to the fire pit. To me my neighbor is the definition of cool.

Last summer I remember seeing a guy stop his car on I-75 to save a turtle that had crossed the shoulder line and made its way into the lane. The driver had pulled over then redirected the turtle back toward the grass. Dangerous, risky, but kind. That's cool.

Cool can be making someone smile, helping somebody with homework; it's having courtesy in driving, empathy for the less fortunate and doing something to help.

The cool is out there, defined by actions not words. But do we, do our kids really see it that way? Perhaps if we begin to show them that by definition cool is none other than doing good, then maybe we'll see more of it. It's out there. In the city, in the suburbs, the small towns. All we have to do is look around. We don't have to change Webster's definition of cool, but can make it so you don't have to look it up.

Might be time for someone to write a book in the spirit of John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage, covering notable acts of kindness, selflessness -- maybe the title of this one could be Profiles in Cool. Wouldn't it be?