Are you 'fine'? Because I'm not

How are you? How is work? How does the current social and political climate make you feel in light of the negative implications it will carry over to future generations?
Fine.
If the answer to the above is fine, then we are certainly not fine. I am certainly not fine.

In an instantaneous society, patience is lacking. We communicate with emojis because it's quicker than using words and we tweet instead of writing letters because who has time to go and buy a stamp? Modern day life means modern ways of living, but does social shorthand threaten society? Apparently, we are all fine. It’s all just fine. We tell our family and friends that work is fine and accept that the world is too. Though is it enough? More importantly, is it even true?

Surely, life is too short to be fine? Too short to have a fine job and talk to fine people about their fine lives continuing into an endless state of average. When people are becoming, if anything, more ambitious with multiple careers as writer/barista/lawyer slash anything you want, being fine is not enough. There is so much to be, why would you pick such a boring way to live? Those people are ok, but I have no intention of being one.

Fine wine I can cope with but being told that everything is fine is a quicker end to a conversation than saying "I voted Tory" on a uni campus. As a society, people would rather say fine because they're worried people don't care. We all believe that someone asking is an expression of social niceties and not affection. So we say fine and get on with our day. But fine could be short for, my life is falling apart between work and social life and I’m hardly making it to tomorrow. Or it can mean, I'm happier than Christmas, my birthday and the Zara sale rolled into one, but they would never know. We need to have these conversations to progress as people and as a society. So, how are you? People want to know, it's why they asked.

More than anything, if you think that things are fine, you’re not paying attention. The world is a volatile place whether your interests are politics, Prada or both. None of it is fine. Even on an everyday basis, it is exciting that we all have the right to vote and awful that McDonalds still don't do all day breakfasts. So genuinely believing that everything is fine is limiting but pretending is worse. Pretending is a disservice to the causes we must speak up for, problems we have to address and experiences we should celebrate. Society has told us fine is the easy way out. It is passive and apologetic, disengaged and unaware. But easy isn’t half as fun and unaware is an embarrassing place to be.

Perhaps we need a wider vocabulary? It might be laziness that leads to great people being restricted by this word. Dictionaries all round could sort us out. So please, please, don’t be fine. Be ecstatic, devastated, tired or brilliant. Be more than fine.

Comments

  1. wow ...again. well said and well written :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Absolute killer read. I love this. Life's too short for it all to be just "fine". Keep up the amazing writing!
    xoxo
    Srna

    www.acrushonlife.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for reading. I really appreciate it!

      Delete

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