"How's it going?"

"It's going."

That's become my standard answer. Not because I'm trying to be clever, but because it's honest without being truly honest. Because people don't really want to know how it's going. They want the social transaction.

If I told them the truth—that my back's been killing me and I'm worried about my mom—they'd freeze. That's not what they signed up for.

But here's what gets me: this works because we've created a world where the truth is inconvenient, where "how are you?" has become "please say you're fine so we can move on." I wonder what we lose when even our casual connections become scripted.

So what do you think? Are we just protecting ourselves with polite distance? Let me know at jamesabrown.net. On that note. I'm James Brown and as always, be well.

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