"You go up to a man, and you say, 'How are things going, Joe?' And he says, 'Oh, fine fine - couldn't be better.' And you look into his eyes, and you see things really couldn't be much worse. When you get right down to it, everybody's having a perfectly lousy time of it, and I mean everybody. And the hell of it is, nothing seems to help much." ~Ransom K. Fern in The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, ©1959
At one of the places I worked in Dallas, my boss's boss asked me, "How's it going?"
"It's never been better!"
"That's good!"
"No, it isn't."
And he never spoke to me again.
oh! I totally understand! most people don't REALLY want the answer! I have an 11 year old girl, a child of my boss, who comes to our office every day after school. It seems everyone asks her "how was your day" and she is ready for that question, and always answers with a quick "fine." Last week I went to get her at her school crosswalk. Because of my husband, Abbie, I tried a DIFFERENT twist on the question, " what was the favorite part of your day?" She was obviously taken by surprise by the question, paused , and then began to really talk about her art class and how it's her favorite!
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