Upon meeting someone for the first time one of the questions that is asked is what do you do? The answer is generally the name of their occupation, teacher, lawyer, etc. When speaking to an acquaintance a typical question is how are you? The answer generally- fine, great, alright etc.  These answers never really tell the whole story.

What if the answer to “what do you do?” was, “I work all day long for a lot (or a little) money, I hate the work and the people I work with. Or, the answer to “how are you?” was “terrible, I have a backache, my dog ran away and somebody rear-ended me”. If those were the kind of answers received would we still want to ask the questions?

I would and we should, but I would like to have the answers to be truthful.  When asking prepare to hear the truth, no matter how beautiful, no matter how ugly. When answering don’t front if you woke up feeling like a truck just ran over you, just say so. I believe that if we start telling the truth in response to the simplest questions and listen with empathy, sans judgment,  our ability to answer, live through and overcome the tough questions and tough times is greatly improved. That improvement leads to growth and that growth and the lessons learned in it can be shared.