Article June 20, 1970 Issue

"How are you?"

EMMA E. AKIN

"How are you?" Many of us habitually use this familiar greeting. But the writer had long been disquieted by the trite question. One day while housecleaning, she was interrupted again and again by the telephone. Each time the same "How are you?" rang in her ears. She began to be acutely irritated. "Who cares?" she was tempted to ask, but she refrained and went back to mopping the kitchen floor.

Almost immediately she slipped on the wet surface. Unable to rise, she floundered around feeling bruised and sore. Finally she managed to roll to a dry part of the floor and struggle to her feet. The phone rang again. She limped over to answer it and heard "How are you?" A response of pain and anger rose to her lips, but she repressed it and excused herself as soon as possible, saying she had important work to do.

"Indeed I do have important work to do!" she thought. "It is high time to clean my mental house and find the correct answer to that invariable question. Just how am I anyway? Am I angry, hurt, resentful, self-righteous, when I should be expressing patience, harmony, and affection?"

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