Sweet people scare me.

There are a lot of adjectives that people would use to describe me..most of them positive, I think, haha.
However, ‘sweet’ isn’t one of them. Neither are soft, cuddly, or girly, or anything else in this general realm that might pop up in your handy thesaurus. (and I KNOW you writerly types have one within arms reach at all times I’ve been called gruff, real, outspoken, etc. I also am very protective of those I care about.. I’ll take it, that’s all cool.

You know what? This doesn’t bother me at all. I’ve never put much stock in syrupy sweetness. It makes me a bit uncomfortable, like I’m a part of a hidden camera show where there’s a crew of people filming, waiting to see how I will react to this type of encounter. You know what I’m talking about. The person that has that “valley of the dolls” uber-vapid look on their face.. The ones that say things like, “it’s such a blessing to have blue skies today.” or, oh my..”I’m more in love with my husband every year!” (with a vacant stare)

Really? No…Really?

I don’t believe a single word of it.

I think so many people fall into this kind of attitude? response? coma? because somewhere, someone told them they should. Think of it as the next level of the typical American greeting. Here you go;

greeting ~ “Hi, how are you?”
response ~ “Fine, thanks”

I don’t believe a single word of it. Nope.

There’s just no possible way that everyone is “fine” all the time. It’s not real, it’s just rote memorization, and an avoidance of interaction. Not good, people. Not good at all.. Scary.

[commercial break: I do know a few people that are positive thinkers. They aren't vapid, they are really sharp. I also imagine that they work hard at that positivity. They care about others, and they mean what they say. Maybe they have an extra DNA strand, or somesuch, but they do exist in small numbers. And they get an A for effort. They are excused from the remainder of this blog. ]

For the past several years, in a kind of personal experiment, I’ve responded to the above ‘greeting’ with a truthful answer. If the day is hella bad, or the dog just threw up on the carpet, or I feel like I might go postal, that’s what I say. If I have had something wonderful happen, or I’ve just witnessed a random act of kindness, I share that response.
Guess what?
This usually brings about an honest response from the other person too. We share a laugh or a smile, and the whole interaction is way more satisfying than the norm. Couldn’t we all benefit from a little more real interaction with our fellow man? Yes…indeed.

Find out how someone is really doing today. Any random innocuous situation. The grocery store, the gas station. Give it a try. Have a two minute conversation with someone. I dare you. Take off the masks of invisibility. It just might change your life.
It just might prevent humanity declining into a dystopian, apocalyptic society… Maybe…
It’s worth a shot, yes?

By the way, how are YOU doing today?
Really?

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