Cool? Fool!

Why are people so obsessed with being cool? They are adults now and yet still they are like school children in competing to be the coolest (grooviest, hippest, right on man, it's all the same crap.)

Have they not figured out that life is all about becoming yourself? It isn't about being cool. Or being so cool you come across as being a total w****r. Sorry Bono, who probably isn't but seem ludicrous to me in his attempts be so cool. Samuel Jackson is a nice guy but that oh so cool hat is silly. (yes I know, people I am certain think they way I dress is silly - odd coloured Dr Martens? - but I am not trying to be cool. To me, cool is just another way of conforming. Of being a sheep. Oh how I wish I had not wasted so much time wishing I fit in! Baa Baa. How I wish I knew what I had been taught was a lie many years ago instead of only 10mths ago. But I digress.

What brought this on? Watching a very long program about the worst pop songs ever, many of which I really liked! Songs slagged off by the same types as did at school-those who wanted to appear cool and therefore couldn't possibly like said song cos they wewre into 'rock, man' or 'punk' or 'rap, man'. Now these people flock to see Mama Mia and hear the songs they trashed!

The people I admire are those who live well despite adversity. Those people who are themselves despite odds. People like ...well...they aren't famous so what is the point of naming those I admire? It includes those who refused to take the bus and sit at the back. Those men who said 'enough is enough' at stonewall. Those men and women who risked all to help a desperate pregant woman. Those people who stand up to the book burners. Those people who say who they are and show who they are even though they know how much pain it will bring.

Now these people are not cool. They have substance. They mean it. They feel it. They live it. And the meek shall inherit the earth. I think I just figured out what that means. The use of meek here obviously does not mean the shy and timid! NO! It means those who truly follow their conscince of its own sake and not for the approval of others, including whatever God they believe in. The minute you hear someone say they 'work for God' you know damn well they don't! (unless you aint figured that one out yet!)

Probably one of the saddest, most self centred, ifnorant of self people I have ever heard talk was a woman who worked with people in dire circumstances in foreign lands. At first one wouldhtink 'waht a selfless compassionate person. Until that is you here her reason for doing so. When asked her reply was 'for Jesus'. So she didn't give a toss about htese people. she wans't there to aleviate the hell they lived in. No. She was there to appease her 'god' so that she may be spared. Many people in the so called 'caring' proffessions are in the professions for the primary reason of saving themselves. They think by doing good, they will feel good about themselves and if they believe in a punative, frightening God, to appease it. It has little to do with compassion for others. It is very sad that they have been corrupted so. they have been so led to think so little of htmselves they now think the only way to save themsleves and be a good person is to do good. But doing good in order to be rewarded is not doing good! And eventually it shows. 'You should be grateful after all I have done for you!' 'Why has this happened to me? After all I have done....?' 'Why am I sick and dying, wasn't I good enough?' (didn't someone, somewhere, say that it wasn't by good works....?)

How terribly terribly sad.