The other day, a twenty-something told me I was cool. I don’t say this to brag (ok, maybe just a little), but because it surprised the heck out of me, and also gave me an extra shot of hope for the future.
Why?
Because this particular twenty-something doesn’t know much about me personally. And let’s face it, we’ve already established that I’m not that great.
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What’s cool?
Well, I do have the US Army Survival Manual on my bookshelf, next to Tolkien and Bill Bryson, Ann Patchett, Dava Sobel, Jasper Fforde, Ilona Andrews, R2D2, a lucky cricket, and Edible & Medicinal Plants of Canada, but he doesn’t know that. Or that I can dye wool with the plants in my yard then design and knit it into a sweater, write science fiction and fantasy, have circumnavigated the globe, perfected chocolate cake and hybrid sourdough sandwich loaf recipes, turned my own wooden rolling pin, or any of the other things that you, dear readers, know about my sojourn on this planet.*
This particular person is a day-job colleague. What he knows about me is that I care about society, inequality, the environment and how we live in it. In short, he knows that I’m trying to make a positive difference.
That’s what he thinks is cool.
And that gives me just a little bit of extra hope for the future.
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* This is a subset of my own personal list of good things; your definition may vary and that’s cool!
J.R. Johnson 
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