How Are You?

I find it humorous thinking of the common phrases we use on a daily basis. My favorite: How are you? In my experience, most of us automatically throw out this question, expecting a typical reply of "good, how are you?" This exchange occurs so often and continues because it keeps us detached and at arms length.

This exact scenario happened the other day at my grandmother's nursing home.  Several people came by and greeted my grandpa with the typical, "how are you" phrase and to my surprise my grandpa replied, "not so good."  My grandpa had just seen wife pass away that morning and I'm glad he gave an honest response.  We have become so accustomed to getting easy answers that most of us don't know how to respond when the answer is uncomfortable.  Maybe we don't need to fix others problems, just listen and give a sense of solidarity.