The definition of style - you've got to have it.

Time, age, station, wealth, fame - it all becomes irrelevant as I get older. I can't gauge other peoples' ages, and sometimes it's a stretch to remember mine. Recently I put pen to paper, subtracting the year I was born from 2010 to remind myself how old I'll be in a couple of months.

And I heard a report on NPR recently that people who have money don't feel the need to show the world they're wealthy. The segment concluded that the folks who are spending the big bucks are the people who work for the rich people.

Sounds like an issue of comfort. The folks who are financially comfortable don't feel the need to show it. Maybe it's about confidence, and has nothing to do with money.

Maybe it's just about having it.

I was talking with lovely Sue at work today, and we were talking about thrifting experiences, we commiserated about how pricy thrift stores have become. And if you bumped into Sue at the grocery store, you'd never ever suspect she was a thrifter.

She has it. Class.

There are people who can drop hundreds of bucks at big name retail stores and look like they wandered out of Salvation Army.

And there are people who buy everything on the cheap and look like Mr. Nordstrom threw up all over them. Metaphorically speaking.

It's about style. It's about it.

Mr. Fabulous can wear a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and emanate a certain casual, confident style. He has it.

Maybe it comes from age, intuition, comfort. There are some people who inherently have it, some people who want it, others who wouldn't recognize it if it smacked them upside the head, and other people who don't care about it at all.

Ironically, the people who don't put a lot of effort into it have more if it than most people.

Chasing style is a race that's never won. Real style can be achieved very affordably, and it's not about what you wear. It's about how you feel.

Having genuine style is having it, without even having to try.