“How are you?”
“I’m good, how about you?”
“Good!’
How many times a day do we have this same conversation with someone? I think I have probably had five conversations like this in the two hours I have been awake, and many more like these will happen throughout the rest of the day.
These conversations have bothered me before, but this morning I especially didn’t like it. I didn’t like how she sighed before saying good and I could see the exhaustion in her eyes. I didn’t like how I knew I had a lot more going on than what was summed up with “good”. I didn’t like that such a powerful question had the automatic response of “good”.
I really care the friend in my class I just had this conversation with, and I would be happy to hear how she actually is. But this “polite” conversation our society has taught us keeps people at an arm’s length and keeps us from knowing the hearts of those we see daily.
So what do we do about it? To be honest, I don’t quite know. But I know this is not how God intended our conversations to be. I’m sitting here trying to brainstorm how I can rephrase this common question to get a real, genuine response. However, as much as the way the question is asked matters, maybe I can envoke change with how I answer the basic question.
Today, this post doesn’t really have a solution or what I am going to do about it. I think the purpose is to just create some thoughts and focus on our generic conversations with those around us. I think just a bit of intentionality could go a long way instead of going through the motions of every day. Sometimes “Good, how are you?” comes out of my mouth before I have even processed I’m saying it. I just want to be more aware of how instead of being conformed to the everyday conversations of our society, we could be a bright light in the middle of a dreary day by just thinking more about what we are saying.
Food for thought 🙂
With love and grace,
Olivia Mars
LiveGrace 
I love this and I’m sure everyone can relate. More and more, people become more cautious of the words we say. “I’m good” is the fasted and best way to generalise and comprese our lives and mood.
I too want to be more mindful of the words I use and the responses I give, even if it’s too just a simple question of “how are you”.
Thank you Olivia, this makes me want to strive to be more genuine with my response and acknowledge how I really am because some day you just feel okay or tired and it’s okay to say that as a response.
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