WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

(c) 2010 Kimberly Photo Kreations

Who do you think you are? This is a question that I despise because it is a question that one generally has thrust upon them during a heated discussion or altercation of some sort.  Okay, sometimes it isn't--sometimes it is a valid question if, for instance, you are a person in the mental health field talking to a patient.  Generally, however, this is not the context in which this phrase bothers me.  

     Why do we ask each other this silly question?  Who do we think we are.  Obviously, in anger it implies that the other person thinks they are better than the person asking the question, as in royalty or God or someone of that nature.  But if you really sit down and think about this question as it is being thrust upon you, you could respond in this manner to the question-asker..."Well, I think I'm a deep person, someone who really cares about others and tries to help them.  I also think I'm a photographer, a writer, a mother, a sister, a daughter, a problem-solver, a friend and a lover.  I think I am a valid human being...," well you get the gist from here.  I overheard a woman in our store ask her "friend" this question when their discussion began to heat up.  Maybe they should go to lunch and each have a go at defining who they are.  Could make for an interesting conversation.

     Another one that gets to me is, "Hi.  How are you?"  Okay this is obviously just a greeting and about 85% of the time, no one really wants you to answer that question.  I'm sure there was a time you were sorry you asked.  People want the pat answer, "Fine, thank you.  How are you?"  If you actually answered people literally in this instance, I doubt seriously that most people would stop and take the time to listen to you babble on, i.e., "Oh, wow, I'm so tired.  Little Johnny kept me up most of the night with his diarrhea and when I finally went to bed Tom was horny and kept trying to poke me from behind all night until I told him to put that thing away.  Then I get up this morning and discover my hemmorhoids are flaring up again and I don't have any freakin' cream.  I think my period's coming because I'm really bloated and there was long, black a hair in my oatmeal.  I'm never eating at that diner again, I can tell you that." 

     There has to be a better greeting somewhere out there.  I'm trying to think of one that is pleasant, but doesn't require a response.  Some of the older one's were good like, "Good day," or "Top of the Morning," or "Hello."  What's wrong with just plain hello?  No need to go anywhere else with it, just hello and move on from there depending on where you are and who you are talking you.  

     My friend from New York used to say to me all the time, "You people on the west coast are so irritating.  You always ask how people are and don't care and then you top it all with 'Have a nice day.'  Really?  Do I actually now believe that that individual actually wants me to have a nice day?  NOT!  Puh-leeeeez."

     Think about it people, it's time to start finding other, more fertile phrases to use as greetings.  If you are a person who actually wants to know how another person is, then by all means, that is the greeting for you.  Otherwise, you may want to consider revising your greeting practices.