Journals: I am, part one.
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 3 comments link this post::Journal jottings in preparation for the "I am" project.::
"How are you?"
I say it myself, but I hate being asked it.
I know it's meant well and to cover a multitude of questions with one simple phrase, but I am rarely ready to answer about my state of being.
How am I...compared to how I could be?
How am I...compared to how others seem to be?
How am I...compared to how I should be?
How am I...on a scale of one to ten?
How am I...at basketball?
How am I...now?
How was I...yesterday?
How will I be...tomorrow?
What I was and what I will be
Seem to affect
How I am being
Now.
How am I?
To be or not to be.
Am, is, are
Was, and were.
I am.
But not the I Am.
How am I?
Why "how"?
Why not what, or who, or where?
I am many things.
I am tired.
I am hungry.
I am a success and a failure.
I am out of here.
I don't know how I am.
Or are.
At any given moment.
Such a protean question, to be used as a simple greeting.
"How are you?"
An impossible question faced on a regular basis.
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 12/22/2007 12:02:00 AM
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3 Comments:
Wie gehts? Bill in Spokane
By 
, at
22/12/07 06:30
I'm always stumped when someone (younger generation, usually) says/asks "What's goin' on?"
At least with "How are you?" I can respond with a bland "fine" or "good" and get away with it.
With "What's going on?" it seems the only one-word answers are "nothing" or "lots."
And of course, "what's goin' on" is just a greeting, so they don't necessarily expect an answer to the question, yet one feels obligated to respond.
By , at
22/12/07 09:24
In my Korean culture, people don't greet each other with a question as Americans do. It is a meaningless question, so I am glad that when I greet Koreans, I don't have to spit out a meaningless answer to a meaningless question.
However, there was a time when they did do so with a question. And the question was, "have you eaten?" This was when the country was poor and most did not know where the next meal was coming from. So how they greeted each other reflected the culture of that period.
So how are you, Julie? Have you eaten yet?
By 
David Cho, at
22/12/07 17:40
