The Lie You Tell Every Time Someone Asks How You Are
Someone asks how you are and your mouth says fine before your brain even catches up. The word is out before you can consider saying anything else. The fine is automatic. Fine is the answer people want and it’s easier than the truth. The truth would be complicated, require explanation, or it would make things uncomfortable, so fine works. Fine is simple. Fine closes the conversation. Fine is the answer that lets people move on without having to actually care about the answer. You are not sure when fine became your default. It happened gradually until the habit was so deep that saying anything else feels like oversharing. Saying anything else feels like burdening someone with information they didn’t ask for. Saying anything else feels wrong somehow even though the fine is a lie. The lie is small so it doesn’t feel like much. One word can’t hurt anything. One word doesn’t matter. But you say it every day to multiple people and the accumulation of the lies starts to add up. You are l...