I got this insight from Charlie, my nearly 5-year-old grandson. Talk about cool. This kid’s got it. In spades.

It turns out that cool is age-blind. I bet you didn’t know that. Most people don’t.

You thought that being cool is correlated to age. That cool is the provenance of the young and hip.

Cool has been the conceit of Millennials, defined as those between 25–39. But they are getting on, aging out of the cool age zone.

The next generational wave, the Gen Whatevers, is in the blush of youth, and definitely cool. Charlie is in that demographic pool.

It doesn’t really matter. I am safely distanced from any predetermined, bracketed age for cool. However, I know damn well that I’m cool.

Here’s how I know.

Charlie, Master-of-Cool, revealed the secret.

“Do you know why I’m cool?” he asked

He tapped the side of his forehead. “I’m cool because I have cool thinking,” he said with complete authority.

So there it is. Cool is a mindset. It’s all about cool thinking.

It defies further description. It is not age-related. Like pornography, you know it when you see it.

I’m way cool.