Oh to be "cool"...

Cool.  What does that even mean?

According to freedictionary.com/cool it means:

cool  (kl)

adj. cool·er, cool·est

1. Neither warm nor very cold; moderately cold: fresh, cool water; a cool autumn evening.

2. Giving or suggesting relief from heat: a cool breeze; a cool blouse.

3. Marked by calm self-control: a cool negotiator.

4. Marked by indifference, disdain, or dislike; unfriendly or unresponsive: a cool greeting; was cool to the idea of higher taxes.

5. Of, relating to, or characteristic of colors, such as blue and green, that produce the impression of coolness.

6. Slang

a. Excellent; first-rate: has a cool sports car; had a cool time at the party.

b. Acceptable; satisfactory: It's cool if you don't want to talk about it.

7. Slang Entire; full: worth a cool million.

We use the world so freely to describe things/people/events/actions/etc. that we like.  Freedictionary.com  says it means "excellent".  So when I think a person, let's say Arlene Dickinson is cool, am I thinking she's excellent or am I thinking "I want to be like her"?  I feel like cool is often used to describe something we consider to be unachievable or difficult to become.  It's like you're either born with or not.  Or we simply reject what we would define as being "cool" because we have negative associations with it and we don't feel like we should try and be a certain way.  So we do what we think is the opposite of what others would consider being cool is.  It's like we have this love/hate relationship with the word.

I have definitely heard before "stop being cool", so in that case is being cool not a good thing?  Do we want to be cool or not?!  I would say the best way to define it is that if we describe something as "cool", it either means we really appreciate what that thing/person/event/action/etc. is about.  And when it is used in a "don't be that way" fashion, it is simply sarcastic and a person is telling you to not be fake and to be yourself. 

I say we all be ourselves and not worry about how others will judge or define our words/actions.  In the end we'll only feel fulfilled if we are true to ourselves and not trying to be a certain way. Obviously coolness is completely subjective and not a clear cut adjective that everyone will understand the same way.  Or at least in my opinion it is...