Thursday, March 8, 2012

How Are You?

When you ask someone how they are, do you listen to their answer?  If they said, "horrible", would you say, "oh, that's good," and walk on?

This is something that has always irritated me.  People say, "How are you" like they are saying "Hello."  There is a HUGE difference, my friend.  "Hello" is a statement, and although it is usually reciprocated, there is no requirement for a response.

"How are you" is a question.  And it's not a rhetorical one.  A question usually gets an answer.  When people ask me how I am, I ask THEM if they want the truth. Some people just mumble, "Oh that's good" or something similar because they don't really listen for a response.

Some people are like, "what do you mean?"  And I'm like, do you want the truth? Do you REALLY want to know the answer to that question?  Most people don't.  But some, maybe out of sheer curiosity of the way I answered, say, yes!

My point is very simple.  If I had one wish for the human race (other than world peace, but hey, this isn't a beauty pageant it's a blog)...it would be that people start LISTENING to each other.  Not just HEARING.  I HEAR a lot of things right now:  the dogs shuffling around, the clock ticking on the wall (which makes me CRAZY, just sayin'), the click of the keys as I type this....but I'm not really LISTENING to anything.  (Except the %$^# clock!  Can we say OCD???)

I would wish that people would say what they mean, and mean what they say.  It's really a very simple idea.  If you don't mean something, DON'T SAY IT!  And if you DO say something, you BETTER mean it.  Otherwise, just keep you yap shut.  Again, not rocket science.

Just my thoughts for the day.

2 comments:

Kathy said...

Kerri, if people meant what they said, I wouldn't have been w/out a home for over 5 months. I would have help to fix up my place. i'd have plenty of food. i would have gone on outings. I was so conflicted for the longest on whether or not to lie or "fudge" on the question, how am I? I now, ashamedly, virtually always (especially fave to face) say "fine." No matter what, even if I just found out terrible health news about myself, cuz u r right, most people dont REALLY want to know. :( People are REALLY into not being negative nowadays, @ the expense of the truth. Of course it would be nice if everything COULD be answered "fine." I think simple honesty, not wallowing in despair, but just an honest answer would be in order. Not everybody's life is FINE @ any given point. That's not reality. I truly do not wish to bring anyone down, but this is me being honest. Surely if one thought about it for 5 seconds they'd realize nobody WANTS to be the one who's not fine. it's kinda humiliating. ty

Rachel said...

Sadly when people ask "How are you?" they really don't want an honest answer...it's a robotic question that people think they need to ask, just like saying to someone "Have a nice day" at the end of a conversation...People say what they think is social required, again how many people REALLY mean it

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