Who is the coolest person alive today?

[MalcolmSmith]

People,

When he was around, some people used to say that Steve McQueen was the coolest person alive. My wife was just reading a book about him and she said he was actually a jerk. This got me wondering. I think we have a real paucity of cool people in the world today. We have a lot of greedy people, a lot of fake people, a lot of phony people, and a lot of people who really probably should be on some form of medication or forced time-out. Who is cool to the extent that they can inspire other people to be cool?

Now, I've thought about this a little bit, and I've developed a rudimentary criterion for cool. Others' opinions may differ. Toward the end of defining a definitive list, feel free to debate these things. That said, here is my criterion for cool:

• A cool person is confident, laid back, and original.
• A cool person does not need to surround themselves with a lot of material stuff to prove he/she is cool--he/she can be cool with just the stuff they have on them at any given time. But this is not to say that cool people are satisfied.
• A cool person is altruistic. He or she is set, so time to spread the love.
• A cool person is non-violent. Violence is evidence of lack of planning, design, and maintenance. Violence is not cool.
• A cool person is creative. It can be cool to copy, but once in a while, we need to move on. Cool people do that.
• A cool person likes to learn. Dumb ain't cool.
• A cool person is open-minded and a self-reflexive critical thinker. There's nothing more uncool than a dumb@$$ who thinks he/she knows it all. Shut up.
• A cool person can find some common ground with just about anyone, but knows when dismissal is both justified and warranted.
• A cool person possesses and displays genuine humility.
• A cool person has a good sense of humor about his/her self, others, and life.
• A cool person is compassionate.
• A cool person is down with multiculturalism.
• A cool person is just.
• A cool person is courageous.

Now, I would not say that I am anywhere near cool. Someday, I would like to aspire to be cool, but I need a role model. For a hot minute, I thought Obama was potentially cool, but then he dropped the ball on habeas corpus, torture, etc., and that's not cool. He also seems to enjoy seeing himself on TV a little bit too much. Beer summit? Really? Now, he could be sandbagging to get through to a point at which he could say, "OK people, now that I've been around here a while, let me tell you what these MFs are doing behind closed doors." That would be cool, but I'm not sure if that's ever going to happen. That said, who is cool? Who can I look up to? Help me out.

10-4,

MalcolmSmith