February 11, 2008   Nature , Social Awareness

Greetings

"Greetings are social customs or rituals to show attention or to confirm friendship or social status between individuals or groups of p...

"Greetings are social customs or rituals to show attention or to confirm friendship or social status between individuals or groups of people." Wikipedia

"Hello, how are you?"

"Fine thank you, and you?"

I met a lady who refused to ask or answer the question. She thought it insufferably insincere to first ask someone how they are when clearly most people don't want to know, nor do they have the time to listen. She said that most people answering "Fine thank you" were liars and that the grusome truthful answer to "How are you?" could just not be tolerated by most people.

I think she missed the point and the perfect elegance of this custom. I'm grateful that we have this ritual. "Fine thanks!" to me is an affirmation. Acually much more than that, I take it to be a statement about the nature of your soul - "No matter how the storm is raging outside, inward all is well with my soul."