"You get used to it, that was all. You made up your mind you were going to be good at it and not panic. It was something you developed in your mind, a coolness. No cooler than cool... It was a coldness you had to develop. The pro with ice water in his veins." - Elmore Leonard
Two weeks ago I finished a book and was looking through my bookshelves for a replacement. I happened upon the Richard Feynman memoir Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman and realized I had been thinking of the book recently but haven't read it in a while. So I started re-reading it.
Then the next day at 5:30 PM the power went out and soon it got too dark to read. That's when I picked up my backlit Kindle and saw Cooler than Cool the Elmore Leonard biography. So I started re-reading that too. The power came back about 7:00 PM the next day but I kept at both books.
It occurred to me that both men were "cooler than cool" and worth emulating - if not for their particular skills for their outlooks on life.
"I used to cross the United States in my automobile every summer, trying to make it to the Pacific Ocean. But, for various reasons, I would always get stuck somewhere - usually in Las Vegas." - Richard Feynman
