Somewhere around the age of 20 I came to know that Cool Just Is. What this means is that you can't try to be cool.  You either are cool or you are not cool.

This goes for music, inanimate objects and situations as well.

I don't remember the year etc... but I do remember the instance: I was sitting in a food court at a mall. A friend was grabbing something to eat and I was left to look through an open space where they would have been sitting.  Looking up I saw a guy that looked like a Senior in college with a five O'clock shadow and a good looking faithful behaving girlfriend that didn't glomm onto him but she was hovering about as if she knew how to react to his every move.  They made quite a team it appeared.  But what got me was he was sitting there eating a hot dog, almost slouching.  He had this completely carefree look about him that I can't begin to describe. I thought to myself, "Cool just is."  I thought, "You just can't try to be that cool.  Someday I'm going to feel like that and be that cool."

I also think that you can't think of yourself as cool.  It is a state of being others must acknowledge.  To truly be cool, others must regard you as cool. 

When you become concious of your effort to be cool, you lose it. 

Over the years I never forgot that day as many things have come about which made me remember that Cool just is. I wrote it into songs, told that story to friends and sometimes simply stated to folks that were coming off as posers, "cool just is."   If they didn't get the point, that was fine with me. 

So remember. Cool, just is.