‘Cool’ and the King of Swords

 

 

 

 

 

My own children often provide the inspiration for my writing.  I always find it interesting to sit with my teenage son or daughter and discuss what they see in the cards.  Their observations are often insightful and poignant.  This morning, as my girlfriend and I drew our morning card, I invited my son, as happens on occasion,  to do the same.  He draws the King of Swords.  “Cool,” he says, in his detached 14-year-old demeanor, and puts the card down without another word.

I go on for a brief moment to talk about what the card means from my own experience. But upon further reflection, I think his one-word answer might have been a more accurate definition.  I think I know what he meant or, perhaps even more relevant, I know what his one-word response meant to me.  It may have had nothing to do with the coolness that does indeed surround the King of Swords.  However, the word “cool” has been added to my own list of key words, phrases, affirmations and insights about the king. 

Our king is emotionally “in check”, intelligent, well-spoken and well-groomed, and, as my son so confidently exclaimed, his detached nature might in fact make him ‘cool’, à la Paul Newman in ‘Cool Hand Luke’  And of course, the cold steel of his sabre could again highlight how ‘cool’ fits here.  Having spent almost 20 years working in education, I know that some of the most poignant lessons about life come from youth. I firmly believe that Art Linkletter and Bill Cosby were dead on when they quipped, “Kids say the darndest things.”