When did a positive become a negative?
And yet it has. Someone asks 'how are you' and if you say "Okay"... it doesn't matter what tone of voice or inflection you use, 50-75% of the time the response is "just okay?"
When did we get to the point where if you're not ecstatically happy, there's something wrong with you? Why are 'great!' or 'fantastic!' the only suitable answers to that question?
What's wrong with being okay? Not every day can be the absolute best day going where everything is just absolutely wonderful sunshine, rainbows, puppies and candy. Sometimes things are a little more balanced than that. It doesn't mean something is horribly wrong, or even that things aren't right.
They're okay. As in # 1 Agreeable; acceptable # 2 Satisfactory; good, as provided by dictionary.com.
I'm okay. I'm alright (which is another one that gets the 'just' treatment). Why is there something wrong with that? Why should us okay people have to justify ourselves?
Hell, for some of us 'okay' is a victory. We're holding it together, we're getting things done, and if we're not grinning fools, it's still a hell of a lot better than it could be. We know what worse is, even if the rest of the 'I'm fantastic!' brigade don't have a clue. Don't degrade a day spent 'okay' by attaching 'just' to it. For some of us, okay days are what we live for. They're a hell of a lot better than the alternative.
But really, why should anybody be forced (or expected) to be better than median on a continuous basis? If you are, if you can be, then that is something to be proud of. If you can live every day of your life in a state of bliss and ecstasy, then your existence is a rare one. Everyone else will have good days and bad days, and the okay days in between. The days where you didn't win the lottery and you might not have quite enough money for gas, but nobody died or got sick, your house didn't burn down or you haven't been evicted... days that belong to the real world.
Why isn't that okay?
When did we get to the point where if you're not ecstatically happy, there's something wrong with you? Why are 'great!' or 'fantastic!' the only suitable answers to that question?
What's wrong with being okay? Not every day can be the absolute best day going where everything is just absolutely wonderful sunshine, rainbows, puppies and candy. Sometimes things are a little more balanced than that. It doesn't mean something is horribly wrong, or even that things aren't right.
They're okay. As in # 1 Agreeable; acceptable # 2 Satisfactory; good, as provided by dictionary.com.
I'm okay. I'm alright (which is another one that gets the 'just' treatment). Why is there something wrong with that? Why should us okay people have to justify ourselves?
Hell, for some of us 'okay' is a victory. We're holding it together, we're getting things done, and if we're not grinning fools, it's still a hell of a lot better than it could be. We know what worse is, even if the rest of the 'I'm fantastic!' brigade don't have a clue. Don't degrade a day spent 'okay' by attaching 'just' to it. For some of us, okay days are what we live for. They're a hell of a lot better than the alternative.
But really, why should anybody be forced (or expected) to be better than median on a continuous basis? If you are, if you can be, then that is something to be proud of. If you can live every day of your life in a state of bliss and ecstasy, then your existence is a rare one. Everyone else will have good days and bad days, and the okay days in between. The days where you didn't win the lottery and you might not have quite enough money for gas, but nobody died or got sick, your house didn't burn down or you haven't been evicted... days that belong to the real world.
Why isn't that okay?