Being Cool is Good.
It's not bad.
I have a friend who after raising his kids said, "Spencer. I don't want my kids to be cool like us. Being Cool is bad. I want them to make money, be productive, have good jobs with 401 K's and Roth IRA's. Not like us being Cool is not a life goal."
I said "We can all want things..."
But being Cool is Good. Sneaking out late, smoking cigarettes, drinking booze in the park or taking amphetamines after dark.
Necking with girls on porch swings,
Or with boys. Whatever you want.
It's cool.
It's Hip to be square, and it's cool not to care,
Because being Hip and being Cool are not the same, but they're both Cool.
Good things.
A flask, an instrument case, being hungover going down an elevator, drinking on the sidewalk with sunglasses on. Sleeping in the library, being always late. These are things that Cool People do.
And we like being Cool, and we ARE Cool, and maybe you're Cool too. I don't know you, we just met. But you seem cool.
Weeping over a dead Lover is Tragically Cool.
Being kicked out of your house is unfairly Cool.
Going to Jail is always Cool, because getting into trouble makes you Cool-er.
Poets are cool,
Painters are cool,
Communist professors
And Vegan Agitators.
Sculptors, weavers, musicians Folk Rock and Other are Cool.
DJ's and Ravers have to be Cool, because these are all Cool things to be. Cool things to do.
Models and Hair Dressers and Fashion Designers. Photographers, the Paparazzi...Princess Di and Elton John. All are cool, especially Meghan Markle and lonely Prince Harry.
Marijuana is Cool, shrooms are Cool, dairy alternatives are Cool. The Factory is Cool. Grey Rainy days are cool. Andy Warhol and Ondine slinking through the party high as kites wearing T-Shades not caring who's there, hanging out with Black Panthers, talking to them is Cool.
Leather Jackets, Rolling Stones, Long Neck Bottles and Camel Filters and the smell of urinals are as cool as they come.
Being Skinny. Skinny people are Always Cool, especially if they're not. Especially if they're bad.
Not caring is definitely Cool.
Unless it's about the planet, or your aging parent's affairs. Having a car does not make you cool. Paying your rent and your bills does not make you cool, because who cares?
Walking in the rain without an umbrella is not cool, but it could be if you're rushing to catch a train to meet a girl that you talked to at the museum or the gallery or the concert and now you're having coffee because that's cool. And you're paying for everything, because cool guys like us take girls that we meet at galleries out for coffee. Or boys, whatever. It's cool.
Racism is not Cool, because being Black is the Coolest, even if you're Square. Because Black People, we invented Cool. And we tell YOU what's Cool and what isn't.
Playing hot Jazz or listening to Rhthym and blues, half naked fumblings in the backs of Cadillacs and fucking on your parents' furniture is so cool. Because Jazz and Sex and all these bad things are really good things...if you're Cool.
And in a cold world full of evil and starving penniless orphans, mother's wailing over Israeli Coffins and gang leaders with dementia dropping bombs over Baghdad...in this world sometimes being Cool is all you've got. And those other things are definitely not cool. But BEING Cool...
Always is.
Definitely.
-Spencer Hutchinson, Chicago, 2023
